Black's Unknown
by swordmaster7175
Summary: This is a rewrite of an older fanfic of mine called The Unknown that I felt I could have done better with after having reread it. OC's (Kaito Raglan) description is on my profile.
1. Prologue part 1

**A/N:** **I decided to try my hand at a rewrite of my second fanfic called 'The Unknown' because as I reread, along with writing the spin-offs of it i'm currently working on, it I thought that I could do somethings a little better now than I could when I first started it. Kaito's starting age in this will be increased to 18 and he'll age naturally until he becomes an APL.**

Prologue part 1

Pov (Kaito)

11 a.m.

"I'm going to need some Ancient Dragon leather to wrap the hilt along with some claws and fangs from the same dragon to give the sword more weight and durability." The blue haired blacksmith, Tamsoft I think her name was, informed me, "I already have the metal you requested ordered and it should be here in two days, so you should have plenty of time to gather those materials."

"Thank you." I said to the female blacksmith before turning to the door, "I'll see you in a couple of days then."

"If you don't have a weapon take one of the ones off the wall by the door, and I'll just tag it onto your final bill from the order." Tamsoft called out, "I have your number, so once I have your total figured out I'll give you a call."

"Once again; thank you." I told her as I grabbed a generic bastard sword and sheath off of the wall before I walked out of the door.

"Now to go to the guild." I told myself as I started walking in the direction of the guild after letting my eyes adjust to the bright, when compared to inside the blacksmith shop, light, "I need to find out where to find an Ancient Dragon."

The Guild

11:20 a.m.

Arriving at the guild I noticed that some construction was happening at the building, "Probably expanding." I said to myself before entering the building through it's double doors.

"Welcome back, Kaito." One of the receptionists, a caucasian male with black hair; blue eyes; and wearing suit with a black vest, greeted me as I entered, "What can I do for you?"

"Where can I find an Ancient Dragon, Alexander?" I asked the receptionist, "I need their leather, claws, and fangs for my new sword."

"Makes sense I suppose." he responded after hearing my explanation, "There's a cave near the farming village that's close to the planeptune border. Just go to the village and ask them to show you to the cave. Here's a map to the village."

"Thanks Alexander." I said showing my gratitude to the man after taking the, but got a cold glare from his blue eyes.

"We've been over this before Kaito. Just call me Alex." he told me with a bit of anger in his voice.

"Alright fine, Alex." I said giving in to his wishes, "I'll see you the next time I'm here."

"Just get going." he told me after letting out a sigh, "I'll call the village elder to let them know that you're coming, but I will let you know that a girl with black twintails left for there not to long ago in order to stem the monster's numbers in that cave."

"Thanks for the info." I said before turning towards the guilds entrance/exit and walking out.

Border Village

1 p.m.

"Are you the one that Alexander informed me of?" an elderly looking man, with greying hair; brown eyes; a cane; and he was wearing a grey shirt with brown pants and shoes, asked as I stopped in front of him with my hands on my knees from the speed of the run I used to get to the village

"I believe that would be me. My name is Kaito Raglan." I responded to the man's question, after catching my breath and standing up straight, by holding out my hand for a hand shake, to which he responded with a firm grip, "Alex told me that there was a black haired female that was coming before me. Is she already in the cave?"

"Aye. I showed her the way there about two hours ago." the elderly man informed me before turning around, "Now follow me. It's only a short walk there.

Unnamed Cave

1:30 p.m

"If you find the young lass in there; I want you to make sure she's safe. She's more important than you think." the elder said before turning around and slowly making his way back to the village.

"I'll do my very best to do that." I called out to the elderly man before turning to enter the dimly lit cave.

As I proceeded carefully into the cave I noticed that the floor had been smoothed out, _'Probably an old mine that got infested by monsters.'_ I thought to myself as I walked deeper into the cave, my senses on alert for any danger. As I got deeper into the cave I saw crystals that seemed to be growing out of the wall that were giving off a soft light that was brightening up the cave.

After walking for another ten minutes, still not having found either the girl or an Ancient Dragon, I was about to give up until I heard a feminine scream quickly followed by a load roar. Quickly taking off in a sprint; I stopped after I arrived at the scene, after a short two minute sprint at my fastest pace, only to see a girl that had black hair tied up in twintails with her back against the wall and what appeared to be a rapier stuck in the ground next to her with an Ancient Dragon looming over her.

 _'Time to do something extremely stupid. Hello possibly broken ankle.'_ I thought to myself before before backing up a few feet only to sprint right at the dragon and jump before putting my right foot out for a kick and yelling, "DYNAMIC ENTRY!" My yell had gotten the attention of both the dragon and the girl; having gained the dragon's attention it swung its head around to look at the sudden noise only to get a foot in the side of its head hard enough to stagger it in both confusion and pain. Using its face as a springboard I jumped off of the dragons face and miraculously landed next to the girl.

"Why would you do something so stupid!" the girl yelled at me as I landed next to her.

"Had to get it to look at me somehow." I answered before turning to the beast that was still trying to regain its bearings, "Let's get this thing beaten, and we'll talk about how stupid I was later."

"Fine, but you have a lot to explain." The girl responded before picking up her rapier from its standing position.

"Here we go!" I exclaimed as I drew the bastard sword I had gotten earlier from its sheath on my waist. "Take This! My Dark Assault!" I yelled as my sword erupted into black flames as I ran at the still disoriented dragon before I slashed at it rapidly, but only managed to land three cuts through it's thick hide; the same black flames that had been on my sword were dancing in the open wounds that had appeared on its body. One across its chest and one on each leg.

"Volcano Dive!" the girl yelled as she jumped before bringing her now flaming rapier down in a stabbing motion before impacting the dragon with enough force to knock it back a few feet; leaving a bleeding puncture wound in the spot that she had impacted.

Now enraged the dragon let out a loud roar before charging both of us with its claws out. "Not today." I said dropping my sword before summoning a gauntlet onto my right hand and arm, "Blazing Fist." I yelled as my gauntlet caught on fire as I ducked under its claw strike before punching it in its stomach with as much force as I could muster; causing it to bend over from both the force of the blow, and from the pain inflicted by the blow.

"Get out of the way!" I heard the girl yell; after heading her warning I immediately ducked out of the dragons bent over form, "Tornado Sword!" She yelled before slashing the dragon with a sword that was now covered in a rainbow colored energy. After her slash the dragon fell over, presumably dead, as we both dismissed our weapons.

Picking up my sword from where I dropped it; I sheathed it before harvesting the items I needed. Shortly after I got the items I needed from the dragon it's body exploded into pixels. "Let's get out of this cave before we talk. We don't want another one of those sneaking up on us." I told the black haired girl was wearing a fancy dress consisting of dark blue, white, red, and small amounts of gold lining and buttons. The dress part covers a red with black spiked lining cloth while the breast part is white, along with the skirt which has black lining on both layers. Behind this is a blue bow, matching a smaller one worn around her neck attached to a black and white collar. In the center is a gold piece.

"You're right; even though I don't like it." She said before we both started walking towards the exit of the cave.

Once we had both gotten out of the cave; she immediately turned to me with an expression that demanded answers. "First of all my name is Kaito Raglan." I said extending my hand; to which she accepted with her own, "Secondly I came here in search of an Ancient Dragon; because I had need of its leather, claws, and fangs to have a new sword forged. This one is just a temporary until my new one is finished."

"My name is Noire, but you may already know me as Lady Black Heart." the now named Noire said introducing herself.

"Not that I don't believe you or anything, but could I get some proof that you're actually Lady Black Heart?" I asked her.

"I guess that it is hard to believe coming from a person you've just met." she said letting out a sigh before a white light surrounded her. Once the light faded revealing her; I saw that her hair turns pure white and it's now worn down with a few inches cut off and her bangs having lengthened a bit messily. Her eyes turn a glowing teal. her new outfit consist of a black turtleneck leotard with a cleavage window at the chest. Her extra color is white/silver. "Is this enough?" she asked me after her transformation finished.

"Definitely." I said in awe, "When the elder told me that the girl that went into the cave before me; I never expected her to be the CPU of Lastation."

After another flash of light Noire was back to how she looked when I first saw her. "Well now that you believe me; let's get back to the village and report to the elder." she told me in a slightly stern voice.

"Alright, milady." I said giving her a small smirk before we started our walk towards the village, "You must be busy all the time. I'll keep anything that you tell me a secret if you need me too; everyone needs someone to talk to at times." I said trying to have a conversation with her as we had our walk.

"I only do everything." she informed me while sighing and shaking her head, "Honestly I do everything I can, but it can get overwhelming at times. My Oracle keeps saying that I need to hire more staff."

"I'd be more than willing to work for you." I said getting a shocked look from her, "It'd be an honor to work for you."

"I don't know." she said sounding unsure about my offer, "You seemed like a capable fighter, but I only just met you."

"If you want to, or can, let's go on a couple quests together, so you can get more of a feel for how I am." I responded trying to ease her uncertainty about my offer, "After that if you feel like I'm capable enough, or not we could at least have the start of a possible friendship."

"I'll think about it, but I'm not promising you anything. Now you have an explanation on why you drop kicked a DRAGON of all things in the face to give me!" she demanded after remembering that little tidbit of our meeting.

"Well I saw a girl cornered by a dragon, and knew I had to do something." I said trying to diffuse her anger, "I acted on impulse more than anything; I had to get it to look at me somehow or else I would have just served to make it angrier, and put us in a disadvantage."

"How much further to the village? I was fighting in there for two and a half hours." She said sounding tired after having heard my explanation.

"Shouldn't be too much further." I informer. After another five minutes of walking; the village came into view, "When we get back to Lastation I'll give you my contact information, so you can let me know your decision."

"You found her!" the same elderly man that showed me the way to the cave exclaimed as we approached the village from where he had appeared to be waiting for us, "I'm glad that the two of you are safe. How's the infestation in the cave?"

"It's been quelled for the foreseeable future." Noire answered the man, "The two of us need to get back to the main city, so we can report this quest as finished to the guild."

"Take care old timer." I told the old man jokingly before looking him dead in his eyes, "If you have need of help again; don't hesitate to call the guild to get me out here."

"I'll keep that in mind youngster." He joked back showing his sense of humor before giving us a shooing gesture, "Now get going you two."

Lastations guild

5 p.m.

"Kaito you're back earlier than I thought you'd be, and you have company." Alexander greeted half-heartedly as Noire and I entered the building.

"I got the materials I needed rather quickly, Alex." I said remembering that he wanted to be called Alex instead of Alexander, "I'll be taking my leave now, and remember my offer milady."

"The quest has been cleared." I heard Noire tell Alex as I exited the building.

"Now back to Tamsoft's Blacksmith." I told myself before retracing my steps from earlier in the day with a light jog instead of the slow paced walk I had been using most of the day.

After a short 10 minute jog to the blacksmith I noticed that several people were leaving the shop; all of them with pleased expressions. "Ah welcome back. Did you forget something earlier?" Tamsoft asked from behind the counter, presumably form having just sold some of her stock.

"No; I have the extra materials already, and I was just stopping by to drop them off." I informed the blacksmith getting a shocked expression from her.

"There's no way that you got them so early." she said not believing me.

"Don't believe me?" I asked getting a nod from her, "Well here's your proof." I finished by placing the dragon's leather, claws, and fangs on the counter in front of her after having pulled them out of my inventory.

"How did you?" she asked me not believing the sight in front of her.

"I have a friend in the guild that can find the general location of certain monsters rather easily." I said answering her question, "Now is there anything else that you have to do before you get the metal for the sword?"

"I'll have to take measurements of both your arms length, wrists, length and width of your hands. All of that's so I can get the blade to be able to be used in either of your hands, and not have it's center of balance be thrown off." she answered my question before pulling out a small notebook along with something to write with and several tape measures, "Now can you take off the coat, so I can get as accurate of measurements as possible?"

As I took off my coat and placed it on the counter as my answer to her request; I told her that I was leaving myself in her capable hands.

Part 1 End


	2. Prologue part 2

**A/N:** **I'm going to apologize in advance for the second half of this chapter; personally it just feels like I rushed it, but I did the best that I could on it.**

Prologue Part 2

Pov (Kaito)

One week later

7 a.m.

"Your order is finished." I heard Tamsoft say from her end of the phone, "I'm opening a bit late today though, so you can come pick it up at noon. Thank you for your patience on it over this past week, your sword came out better than expected."

"That's good to hear." I responded to her news while lying in my bed having just woken up, "Get whatever you need taken care of, and I'll see you at noon."

"See you then." she responded before hanging up.

"Okay time to start my day." I said while yawning before getting out of the bed I had in the corner of my multipurpose room from the front door. I call it a multipurpose room because it serves as a bedroom, kitchen, and dining room all in one. Making my way over to one of the three doors in my house that I knew lead to the bathroom

; the other doors were to the basement and outside. "I really need to get a new place." I said to myself before entering the bathroom to shower.

20 minutes later

After exiting the bathroom feeling refreshed I decided started my daily routine of 20 pushups and 20 sit ups. Nothing major; just a small workout to get my blood flowing in the morning. After I finished my morning routine, without breaking a sweat, I left my shack of a house for the guild to look for a high reward quest, but with little hope of finding one. _'Noire's been working herself a little too hard lately.'_ I thought to myself as I walked to the guild.

The Guild

8:20 a.m.

"What can I do for you, Kaito?" Alex asked as I walked up to his desk in the guild.

"Any good quests for today," I asked him before looking around to see if any one was was listening in; satisfied that I saw no one remotely close to us I leaned forward to ask him an additional question, "Or has Lady Black Heart already taken them for today?"

"She has not." he answered before passing me a piece of folded paper, "She specifically requested me to give that to you, and to ask you to meet her at Septent Resort this afternoon. I believe that the time and reason are in that note, but I can't be too sure as I have not read it for privacy's sake. If you want I can give you a list of quests for that area."

"I'll take 2 of them then." I informed him while letting out a small sigh and grabbing the folded paper and putting it in the right pocket of my coat, "I'll let you pick them out.'

After two minutes of him looking through the list of quests for the area; Alex handed me two sheets and said, "There you go. I picked two of the highest ranked quests in that area, but those are only D-rank. Make sure you get something to eat before you go though; I could hear your stomach growling as you entered the building." he paused here to take a breath, "Seriously; you need to eat something in the morning before you leave your house."

"Alright I'll get something to eat before I go." I informed him after taking the wo sheets of paper, folding them, and placing them in my left coat pocket, "I can't go until this afternoon though. My swords done, but Tamsofts not opening until noon."

"Well have fun trying out your new sword." he said sounding a bit disappointed, "Just take care of yourself. Now get going."

Tamsofts Blacksmith

12:05 p.m.

"Ah! Right on time, Kaito." Tamsoft greeted as I entered her shop, "I just finished fitting your swords sheathe. Now come back behind the counter."

"Alright." I said feeling excited to see the finished results.

"I do have some news for you though." Tamsoft informed me as she led me to the forge section of her shop, "I have no idea what you did, but Lady Black Heart herself came to my shop, and all but ordered me to make an addition to your weapon; as a sort of thanks. She said it seemed like the only thing she could do to properly thank you."

"What kind of an addition?" I asked the blacksmith.

"She brought a Share Crystal of all things, and asked me to forge into your sword as a second core of sorts." Tamsoft responded before going into more detail as she continued to lead me deeper into her store, "Like I said though; I have no idea what you did, but the blade itself turned out amazing because of the additional material. I managed to get the crystal into a good spot just off of the side of the hilt in the design you gave me without throwing anything off weight, and keep it relatively well guarded."

 _'Why would she do that?'_ I thought to myself before realizing that we had reached the forge section of her shop. Spotting a long object wrapped in an azure colored cloth laying flat on an anvil, "Is that it?" I asked feeling my excitement from before returning in full.

"It is, but I have one final question for you before I let you see your blade." She informed me.

"I have an answer, so ask away." I responded to her.

"Do you have a name in mind for her?" Tamsoft asked me referring to the sword as a 'her', "A sword as good as this one turned out needs a name."

"How's 'Eryn' sound?" I asked her after giving the name some thought, "I don't know why, but Eryn seems like the right name for it."

"Not it, but her!" Tamsoft all but yelled at me, "All the swords I make are females in my eyes, but Eryn seems like a fine name."

"I'll keep that in mind." I said giving a nervous laugh at her sudden outburst.

"Now are you ready to see your blade?" She asked getting a nod from me as her answer, "Come along then."

As we got even closer to the cloth wrapped sword on the anvil; I felt my excitement grow with every step. Once we had reached the anvil; I could barely contain myself.

"Quite the excitable one aren't you?" Tamsoft asked me as she picked up the cloth wrapped sword and unwrapping the hilt but not the rest of the sword, although she did loosen the cloth, "It's understandable though. This sword is one of, and if nor IS, the best weapon I have ever made. Now take it." she finished by offering the hilt to me while holding onto the cloth covering the blade loosely with a smile.

"With pleasure.'" I responded, but as I wrapped my hand around the hilt I felt a small jolt of electricity go up my arm. Not giving up though I kept my grip on the hilt tight, and started pulling the sword free of it's cloth prison. Once it was free I got to see the weapon in all its beauty and glory ( **Eryn's first fury form from Fairy Fencer F)**. "I can clearly see all of the effort you put into forging her. The weight feels just right."

"Damn right it does." she responded pridefully while puffing out her chest, "I made that sword specifically for you; with all of your measurements to determine where the center of balance should be, the exact length the sword itself should be, and the perfect weight it should be for a person of your height not strength."

"Thank you very much for this." I said giving her one of the biggest grins I could.

"You're the one that made it possible by getting those materials from the Ancient Dragon so quickly," she informed me, "Lady Black Heart provided the Share Crystal for unknown reasons, and I provided the forge and skill necessary to forge it. I'm feeling generous today, so go take her for a test run; then come back and pay me tomorrow."

"Once again thank you, and I will." I responded to her before starting to make my way out of her store, "I'll even give you a field report on how she handles."

Septent Resort

1:22 p.m.

"Where is she?" I asked myself as I arrived at the chain of small interconnected islands, "She said to meet her here at 1:20 in her note."

After another five minutes of waiting I heard a female voice yell out, "Sorry I'm late!" when I turned towards the direction of the voice; I saw Noire running towards me, "My paperwork took me a little longer than I thought it would. You weren't waiting long were you?"

"Not at all; only about five minutes." I answered her after she caught her breath, "Before we do anything else here; I have a question for you."

"What question is that?" She asked me in return, "Not that I'm curious or anything."

"Why did you have Tamsoft forge a SHARE CRYSTAL of all things into my new sword?" I asked her while putting emphasis on the words share crystal.

"Well if you're going to be working for me; then you're going to need an edge against other adventurers." She said answering my question while crossing her arms under her bust, "You'll find that it should increase some of your physical traits; such as your speed and strength, and it's a way of saying thank you for the help in that cave. I'm not curious or anything, but how did it turn out?"

Sighing I summoned my new sword in a black swirl and unsheathed it in order to show it to her, "This is the weapon that I had Tamsoft forge for me. Her name is Eryn; Tamsoft made it quite clear that all the swords that she makes are female." I said with a smile while looking at the blade that rested within my hands before looking back up to Noire, "She said that this is one of, and if not is THE, best weapon that she has ever made; and that it's all thanks to the two of us."

"Have you tested her out yet?" Noire asked me while looking at, and referring to, the sword before she seemed to remember something and lifted her head to look me in the eye, "Also my Oracle wishes to meet you today, so after we're done here; you will be joining us for a short talk and dinner."

Taken by surprise from the sudden order; I could only nod as a response as my sword disappeared in the same black swirl it appeared in. After having taken a minute or so to overcome my surprise from the sudden order and dinner invitation I said, "Let's get whatever we need here done with. Now that I think about it; why did you ask me to meet you here anyway?"

"I need some hematite for a project that the Basilicom wants to start, and a monster here called a Tae Kwon Cat drops it." She said answering me as she began to lead the way into the dungeon, "They like to travel in packs of 15-20; on the rare occasion even more than that."

"Sounds like a fun time." I said sarcastically as I started following her into the dungeon. After a few minutes of walking in silence with her I decided to ask her a question, "I'm guessing that you wanted me here in order to test what I can really do?"

"As if." she said in response to my question as a couple passive mobs passed us while we walked through the dungeon towards where the Tae Kwon Cats resided, "I wanted you here, so I could show you what I can do. If I need assistance than you may help."

"Once again; sounds like a fun time." I said responding to her statement as I looked up at the cloudless blue sky, but kept my senses sharp in order to keep a mob from sneaking up on us.

"You should have plenty of opportunities to show what you can do." She informed me as a mob, a fish skeleton I believe it was called, tried to attack us from the front; only to be met with a swift defeat as Noire struck it with her rapier, "We're getting close now, so be prepared."

"I'm always ready." I informed her as my gauntlet appeared on my right arm and Eryn appeared on my waist from a black swirl.

Lastations Basilicom

5 p.m.

"So you're Kaito?" A silver-haired, blue-eyed, tomboyish, suit wearing girl asked me after Noire showed me to the dining room, which had a table that looked to be able to seat 18, before leaving for the kitchen.

"That's my name." I said answering her question as I relaxed into a chair, "May I get yours?"

"My apologies." She told me as she took a seat across from me, "My name is Kei Jinguji; Oracle for Lastation."

"I assume that you looked into my background?" I asked her after a moment of silence passed.

"I'm afraid that I had to." she said showing a slight amount of regret, "You can never be to careful with people these days, but I'm hoping that will change in the future. It surprised me on how clean that your background is except for the fact that you're not originally from Lastation, but there's no information on where you were born or who your parents are. Care to share some info on that?"

"I won't tell you everything just yet because of it being a difficult time in my life." I informed her as I waited for a sign of approval, which came in the form of a nod, "Contrary to what you may have learned; I was, in fact, born in Lastation, but I spent most of my childhood in Planeptune. My father's name was Rex Raglan, and I can't remember my mother's name; the reason for that is because they separated, not divorced, shortly after I was born and my father got custody of me and brought me to Planeptune to raise me better. When I turned five my father passed away trying to protect me from an unexpected monster attack while we were on a picnic in Virtua Forest."

"I'm guessing that someone that your father was close to took you in after that?" Kei asked me as I paused to take a breath.

"That's right. Normally I would have gone back to my mother, but I didn't know her and my father wasn't on good terms with her still; even though he never lost his love for her." I said continuing my story, "After my father passed away; a friend of his named Falcom raised me to be an adventurer like she was, and I took to the life instantly. She taught me nearly everything I know now from swordplay and martial arts, from a friend of hers named Tekken, to cooking over the span of time I was with her."

"Is she still alive?" Kei asked having shown a brief bit of surprise once I had mentioned Falcom.

"I couldn't tell you." I answered her question, "While we were going through a dungeon she threw me out of the way as a portal, that was blue in color, of all things opened up underneath us, so for all I know she could still be alive in another dimension. Anyway back to my story; after she disappeared I moved back to Lastation and became a guild member, and I've been here ever since."

"Well that is quite an interesting past that you've had." she said after she had taken a moment to contemplate everything that I had told her, "What are your living arrangements; if I may ask."

"I live in a single multipurpose room house; although it's more of a shack." I said informing Kei of my living situation, "It's good enough to live in, but it's small."

"Well we can't be having that from our new employee." Kei said earning a questioning look from me, "I'm sure that Noire would agree as well; but I can, and will, arrange better living conditions for you."

"There's no need to do that though. I'm happy living where I'm at!" I shot back at her proposal, _'Even though I completely hate it.'_

"Please I insist." she said pressing against my argument, "After hearing about your past; I personally want to help you. It may take a couple days, but I'll get it sorted out for you and I won't take no for an answer."

"You won't take no for an answer on what, Kei?" Noire asked as she entered the room with a small cart of different types of food.

"Getting Kaito here set up with better living arrangements." Kei answered before turning to look at her, "Personally; I feel that he shouldn't be living in a single roomed shack of all things; especially if he's going to be working here with us."

"Really! I'm happy where I'm at!" I said louder than I had before while turning my attention to Noire.

"Kei, if he says he's happy where he's at; then let him be." Noire said to her oracle while turning to face said oracle.

"Fine." Kei said while letting out a drawn out sigh; before shifting in her seat slightly, "Well let's get dinner over with, and then we can talk about your employment here."

"The offer will remain standing though, Kaito. " Noire informed me as she wheeled the cart closer to the table, "All you have to do is say something, and Kei will help you."

"That's right." Kei said turning her gaze to the food that had just been placed in front of her.

"Alright." I said as a plate had been placed in front of me, "I'll keep that in mind then."

"No need to wait you two." Noire said as she sat down in a seat two from my left with her own plate.

"Thank you for dinner." I said aloud before taking my first bite; only to stop after an explosion of flavor.

10 minutes later

After we had finished eating; Noire had asked me if I had enjoyed the meal. "It was one of the best meals that I have ever eaten." I said giving Noire her answer before I placed my plate on the cart and standing up, "I don't want to overstay my welcome, so I should probably be going now."

"I'll show you the way out." Kei told me as she stood up as well, "I wish to talk with you a little more."

"Alright." I said relenting to her request.

 **A/N:** **I plan on splitting this into at least one more part; maybe two. I'm trying to flush out how Kaito and Noire met more than I did in the original.**


	3. Prologue part 3

Prologue Part 3

Pov (Kaito)

Lastations guild

six months later

9 a.m.

 _'Kinda hard to believe it's been six months since then already, and to think that Noire and I became good friends over that time.'_ I thought to myself while I looked through the list of quests that Alex had given me to choose from. "You sure that these are the ones that will gather the most shares for Lastation, Alex?"

"Kaito; who's the receptionist that always gives both Lady Black Heart herself, and yourself; your quests for the day?" Alexander asked me, and got my finger pointing at him as his answer, "Thought so. Now those are my recommendations for both of you."

"We'll take these three in the grasslands then." I said pointing at the three quests that I had picked.

"Here's the information on the quests." He said handing me a small folder, already having had the folders for every quest ready before I had arrived, and taking the list back from me, "I'll be here for when you're done for the day."

"Thanks again, Alex." I told him as I turned towards the exit with the folder in hand, "Unless something unexpected happens; you'll be seeing me around 4 this afternoon."

ABXYLR Grasslands

one and a half hours later

"How close is Lastation to getting it's CPU Candidate?" I asked Noire after we had arrived at the dungeon entrance; which is marked with an old fashioned wooden gate.

"Very close." Noire answered as she reverted to her human form since she had flown the both of us out here, "If everything goes well; Lastations new Candidate should be born in the next few days."

"Well let's make it happen then!" I said feeling energetic.

"Have you given any more thought about the offer that Kei made you last month?" Noire asked me as we entered the dungeon with me leading the way.

"You mean the one where she said that I could live at the Basilicom with the two of you; instead of her finding me a new house?" I asked her in response; I got my answer by looking over my shoulder to see her nod her head, "I'll let you know for sure after the Candidate is born."

"Before we get any further and get distracted; Kei asked me to tell you something." Noire said stopping, forcing me to stop as well and turn to face her, "After asking every hospital in not only Lastation, but Lowee and Planeptune aswell, to see the birth records from 18-20 years ago; she may have found your mother, but she isn't certain and she wanted me to go there with you."

"Seriously!?" I asked her with a shocked expression, "What's her name?"

"Kei said that the most likely person would be Chian." Noire said answering my question, "She runs a factory and restaurant named Passe, and around 14 years ago she reported that her husband passed away."

"Let's get these quests done quickly then." I said excitedly as I turned around again, "I'm all fired up now!"

Outside of Passe

3 hours later

"You nervous at all?" Noire asked as we stood outside of the diner portion of Passe; which was located in the quieter portion of the factory district in Lastations main city.

"More nervous than when I kicked that dragon in the face, but it's either now or never." I said answering her question before opening the door and entered the diner; with Noire following. We were greeted by an empty restaurant that had classical music playing at a low volume.

"One moment and I'll be right with you!" A feminine voice called out from what I'm guessing was the kitchen. After a couple minutes had passed a woman with blue hair with a pair of goggles resting just over her forehead, golden colored eyes, a bandage patch on her left cheek, a deep pink jacket with matching pants, a black tube top, a white scarf, and a black apron. "How may I help you two?" She asked as she led us to a table.

"Do you happen to know where Chian is?" Noire asked the first question for me after we had sat down.

"You're speaking to her." The woman said revealing herself to be the woman that we were looking for, "Why are you looking for me; if I may ask? Do I know the two of you?"

"You might know him." Noire informed her before motioning for me to take over, "You should sit down as well; I'll let him explain."

"Does the name Rex mean anything to you?" I asked getting a questioning look from Chian.

"I've only known one man by that name, and he was my husband before he passed away a little over 13 years ago." She said answering my question, "Why are you asking?"

"Did the two of you have a child together?" I nervously asked her my second question wanting to be entirely sure, but feeling extremely nervous.

"We had a beautiful baby boy; we agreed on the name Kaito; he should be around 18 or 19 years old by now; that is if he were alive." She said answering me once again, and causing my heart to feel like it skipped a beat, even though I had ignored her question, "Once again though, why are you asking?"

"To answer your question now; what if I told you that my fathers name was Rex Raglan, and that My name was Kaito Raglan?" I said answering her question with another question of my own; getting a shocked look from her.

"I would call bulls***; because I was told that my son went missing, presumably dead as well, once my husband died; by one of his close friends no less!" Chian yelled angrily at me while she stood up, "I gave up hope that I would ever see him again! You have no idea how much I wanted to see both of them again!"

"Now calm down, miss." Noire said trying to calm down the blue haired woman.

"I will not calm down!" Chian said turning her anger towards the ,unknown to her, CPU, "Do you even know how sad I get every time I think about them!"

Placing my guild identification card on the table along with one of the last few things that I had of my father, which was a framed photo of the two of us on my fourth birthday that I always carried on my person. "Will these help prove who I am too you?" I asked as she looked at the photo.

"That is one of the last photos he sent me." Chian said suddenly going quiet once she saw the photo, "Even though we were at odds with each other he always kept me updated on how our son was doing, but tell me; if you really are Rex's and my own son then who raised you after he died?"

"After my father passed I went to one of his closest friends, Falcom, since I didn't know who or where my mother was." I informed the woman, "She did a good job raising me into the man you see across from you."

"I can't believe that he never even told you the name of your own mother," Chian said as she picked up my guild ID to look at it better.

"I was very young at the time, and he was very busy trying to work hard enough to be able raise me." I informed her as she looked over my guild ID thoroughly, "If he did tell me; then I don't remember."

After placing my guild ID back down; Chian was quiet for a long while. Deciding to break the silence Noire decided to voice a question of hers, "What would it take for you to believe him?"

"Short of a DNA test?" Chian countered Noires question with one of her own, "There's only one thing." she paused here to turn her attention from Noire to me, "Is there a birthmark around your left shoulder in the shape of a bird?"

"I do, and it is. Would you like to see it in order to be completely sure?" I said answering her question while asking another of my own.

"I feel that I have to." Chian answered my question with a sigh.

After hearing her answer I stood up and turned my back to the two women at the table before taking off my coat and lifting my shirt up and off until only my arms were left in it. "Is that the birthmark that you were talking about?" I heard Noire ask Chian.

"There's no doubt about it." Chian said before telling me that I could put my shirt back on and returning to my seat next to Noire, "If you really are my son; then I believe I have a right to know who this young woman next to you is."

"I believe that is for her to say." I told Chian.

"Believe it or not, but I am Lastations CPU, Black Heart." Noire said introducing herself finally.

"Why would the CPU of all people be here of all places, and with one of her citizens no less?" Chian asked Noire having not believed her.

Before saying anything else Noire was surrounded by a white light as she transformed, "Believe me now?" She asked Chian before reverting to her human form in another flash of light, "I'm here with Kaito because, seeing as he's an employee of the basilicom; I decided to help him find his lost family."

"Where have you been living at?" Chian asked having decided to try to change the subject.

Looking at Noire out of the corner of my eye I decided to finally give her the answer that she and her Oracle had been waiting for, "Up until recently I was living in a single multipurpose roomed shack, but I decided to take Kei, Lastations Oracle, up on her offer to live at the basilicom. "I said shocking both of the women present but Noire was able to hide it.

"You can come visit him whenever you want to, " Noire told Chian, "I'll get Kei to set up a DNA test for the both of you as well; just so the two of you can be completely sure on wether you are actually related."

"We should really be going now though. Kei's expecting us to be back soon." I said as I started to stand up only to be stopped by Chian.

"One more thing before you go." Chian said stopping me from standing up by handing me a pen, "Can I get a way to contact you?"

"Of course." I told her before writing down my phone number for her, "I'll be seeing you once that DNA test is set up."

"Let's go." Noire said after we had finally gotten out of our seats, "I still have a lot of paperwork to do."

Lastations Basilicom

one hour later

"You two better get to the Sharacite Chamber." Kei informed us as soon as we entered the Basilicom.

"Why? What happened?" I asked.

"It's been fluctuating ever since noon." Kei said answering me, "Something, I don't know what, happened while the two of you were gone, and I don't have time to explain!"

"Okay we're going." Noire responded to her Oracle before we both took off.

"What do you think happened?" I asked Noire after we were out of earshot of Kei.

"I haven't the foggiest idea," she answered as we rounded a corner to a stairwell going down.

"You think the candidate was born?" I asked as we descended to the lowest floor of the basilicom.

"If that's the case; then we really should hurry." Noire said answering my question as we both sped up once we were off of the stairs.

Once we had reached the room that housed Lastations Sharacite; we heard what sounded like the cries of a newborn baby coming from the other side. Opening the door we were greeted by the sight of a newborn baby that we could tell had black hair laying on the ground, halfway between us and the sharacite, loosely wrapped in a black blanket. Deciding to be the first to enter the chamber; I walked over to the baby and gently picked it up, as I cradled it in my arms I caught a glimpse of its red eyes before they closed again.

"Wasn't Planeptunes candidate born as an older teenager?" I asked Noire as I turned to exit the chamber with the baby in my arms having stopped its crying and fell asleep shortly after I had picked it up **(I say it because they don't know the baby's gender yet)**.

"That's what was revealed to the public." Noire said answering me as she looked at the now sleeping baby that was in my arms, "We should really figure out it's gender; although if it is Lastation's Candidate; then it's going to be female,"

"Well while you get that figured out; I'll go get my stuff from my shack, and I'll be back." I said informing her of my plans, "Wether the baby turns out to be Lastations Candidate or not; text me what gender it is, and I'll buy everything that we'd need to raise a newborn on my way back."

Without waiting to hear her reply to my statement; I left the room and started to navigate my way back to the main entrance. _'What would we need for raising a child?'_ I asked myself in my head, _'Definitely a crib, diapers, a changing table, wet wipes, baby food, and baby powder for sure. Maybe some toys and other such things.'_

"What was going on with the Sharacite?" Kei asked me as I walked by her in one of the many hallways that lead to the main entrance.

"Lastation's Candidate may have been born, but as a newborn baby." I answered her while stopping beside her in the hall, "Noire's in the chamber still, and I'm leaving in order to pick up my stuff from my shack and pick up the necessities to raise a child. I decided to take up your offer and live in the basilicom by the way."

"What do you mean by that?" Kei asked after having heard what I said.

"Long story short is that I'm moving in to help raise what could be Lastations CPU Candidate." I said shortening the second half of my earlier explanation.

 **A/N:** **Do you like what I've been doing so far with this rewrite? How about the part with Uni being born as a baby instead of her normal age? There's going to be one more part to this Prologue. Not going to lie; I've had a majority of this chapter done for over a week, but I came into a small bout of mild depression because of the time of year.**


	4. Prologue part 4

**Prologue Part 4**

One year later

Lastations Basilicom living room

Pov (Kaito)

11 a.m.

"This has been a hectic year; hasn't it Noire?" I asked the black haired, twin-tailed woman who was sitting on the dark blue couch beside me as we were taking a short break from both guildwork and paperwork, "What with little Uni growing so much faster than a normal human and all."

"You're telling me." She answered me while letting out a sigh, "You've been doing a lot with her now that she's grown into a teenager and all. Even before that you really took charge in raising her."

"I've only done what I've needed to." I informed Noire, "All I've done is help raise her into as good of a person as I could while teaching her how to fight. She just grew up _too_ fast for me."

"You say that, but you should've seen the look on your face when she first called you 'Papa' a week after she was born." she told me teasingly, "You practically melted when she did."

"Well if I'm her papa; then what does that make you?" I shot back at her even more teasingly, "You've done just as much to raise her as I have."

"That's obvious." She said before giving me her answer, "I'm her mama; she's even called me so."

"Hey papa!" Uni said excitedly as she entered the room, "I got a quest for you, mama, and I for today!"

"What kind of a quest is it, Uni?" I asked her after she closed the door.

"There's been some distortions in Westwind Ravine. The quest is to investigate them, and defeat any monsters that may have come from those distortions." Uni informed us as she sat down next to Noire.

"Sounds kind of urgent." Noire said putting a finger to her chin and looking up at the ceiling.

"Sounds interesting." I said giving Uni a thumbs up, "Let's get going you two; this is getting me excited."

Westwind Ravine

Two hours later

Upon reaching the dungeon the three of us noticed that there seemed to be weird looking 'holes' dotted around the dungeon. These 'holes', from what we could see, seemed to be nothing but pixelated patches of black.

"What are these?" I asked no one in particular as I cautiously approached the closest one, "They seem harmless, but don't let your guards down.'

"Be careful over there, Kaito." Noire instructed me, "We don't know what touching those could do."

"Let's carry on; I'm getting a bad feeling about this." I told the two girls, _'I don't know why these seem so familiar.'_ , I thought to myself before continuing out loud, "Be ready for a fight at any moment." I finished as I summoned my sword in its usual black swirl.

Once we had gotten further into the dungeon we started to notice more signs of distortions appearing. "What's happening here, papa?" Uni asked me showing her concern as we passed yet another one of the 'holes'.

"Gonna be completely honest with you two; I have no idea." I answered Uni's question.

Continuing even further into the dungeon we eventually heard a snapping sound come from up on one the cliffs that had trees. "Be ready." Noire told both Uni and I quietly after we heard the sound.

Just as I was about to draw Eryn; a pitch black Fenrir jumped down from the cliff right down in front of us, and it looked ready to fight. _'I knew that those_ 'holes' _looked familiar!'_ , I yelled at myself in my head, "We need to go! NOW! I can barely remember, but this looks like the same type of distorted monster that killed my father!"

Surrounding herself in a bright flash of light; Noire transformed into Black Heart. "There's no way we're leaving with this dangerous monster here." She said having turned serious, "Uni provide ranged support, but stay safe."

"Fine but things get dicey; we leave right away." I said finally drawing Eryn from her sheathe.

Charging the distorted monster; I let loose a Dark Assault, but my attack hardly did any damage. Close behind me was Black Heart with a Tornado Chain, and was more successful at dealing damage to the beast but still didn't do much.

"Why can't we hurt it!?" Black Heart shouted to no one in particular.

"No Idea!" I answered her before deciding to try something. Focusing on the Sharacite that was embedded in my blade; it started to give off a bright glow as my sword was once again surrounded in black flames only this time the tips of the flames were a rainbow color.

"UNI!" I heard Black Heart yell, but I kept my focus, "He's trying something, so lay down covering fire!"

"RIGHT!" I heard Uni respond to Black Heart as she started to shoot at the Fenrir.

After a minute of focusing I had enough of my own energy gathered into the Sharacite, "Alright I'm ready!" I shouted as the covering fire stopped and Black Heart flew away from the Fenrir, "OBSIDIAN BREAK!" After having shouted the name of my new attack, an EXE drive; I charged at the beast and unleashed a series of five slashes before throwing my sword into the air as my gauntlet appeared on my right arm, also sporting the rainbow tipped black flames, before I unleashed a 10-hit combo **(The exact same as Tekkens EXE)** , after that, just after my gauntlet disappeared, I caught my blade by the hilt in a reverse grip as it extended out by another three feet with the rainbow tipped black flames forming the extra length, "THIS IS THE FINAL STRIKE!" Once I had shouted that I disappeared from where I was only to reappear behind the Fenrir with my blade back to normal, and the Fenrir collapsed; rainbow colored flames dancing along a gash that opened up on it's side.

"Where did that come from, Kaito?" Noire asked after she had reverted to her human form upon seeing the Fenrir collapse.

"N-no i-idea." I said huffing a bit from exerting myself much more than I usually do, "I h-had to d-do something."

"LOOK OUT, PAPA!" Uni shouted having seen something that Noire and I hadn't.

Quickly turning around I saw the Fenrir trying one last attempt to strike Noire and I. I only had enough time to shove Noire out of the way before I was swatted by the beast directly into one of the 'holes'

"KAITO/PAPA!" I heard Noire and Uni shout respectively just before I entered the 'hole' and quickly lost consciousness.

Unknown Place

Unknown time

"Where am I?" I asked aloud sounding tired; seeing I had just woken up, "Last thing I remember is getting swatted into a 'hole' and hearing Noire and Uni shouting." Forcing myself to move in order it sit up; I saw that I was in a black void seemingly floating in the air.

"I'm glad you managed to survive that." I heard a voice, that sounded like it was layered with three different voices, say, "You are currently in a space located between dimensions right now, but worry not; you will be returned to your world shortly."

"How did I get here?" I asked the voice, which seemed to be coming from every direction at once.

"This world forms a bridge of sorts when two different dimensions get close enough to each other. Unfortunately it causes some distortions in both dimensions." The voice said answering my question, "It happens at random times, so there's not really a way to prepare for it."

"I'm guessing that the Fenrir that we fought was a either manifestation or distortion of this world then?" I asked the voice again.

"That would be correct." The voice answered my question before giving me a bit of advice, "You have enough time to ask me one more question before I have to send you back."

"Okay then; what's your name?" I said asking the voice for it's name.

"You may call me; Drake." The voice, now named Drake, said before a white portal opened up beneath me but didn't swallow me right away, "Good luck. Before I forget; I've given you something from the other dimension as a way of saying sorry for the distortions. It's called a CPU memory; don't use it unless you absolutely need to, and if you do need to use it you have to eat it. By the way time moves differently here than It does in your dimension." After he finished his part; the white portal swallowed me whole.

Planeptune

Virtua Forest

Unknown time

"Where am I this time?" I asked aloud after I came out of the portal still feeling drained, and saw unfamiliar territory.

After wandering around the forest I stumbled across a path and, as luck would have it, someone was walking on the path just as I found it; this person was wearing what looked to be a black one piece outfit with white lines on it, an oversized blue coat, had long brown hair with a leafy looking bow in it, and at least seven different phone cases along the waist of the coat.

"Excuse me!" I called out trying to get the person's attention, and succeeded in getting it, "I'm a bit lost here. Could you tell me where I am?"

"You're in Virtua Forest." The person, who sounded female, said answering my question, "My names IF. What's your's?"

"I'm Kaito." I said giving her my name, "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." IF said flashing me a quick smile, "Let's get you back to the main city of Planeptune; you seem like you're exhausted."

 **A/N:** **That will conclude the prologue for this rewrite. Uni thinks of Kaito and Noire as her parents instead of her siblings, but will call them her siblings when in the company of others that don't know of their relationship. Kaito was sent 15 years into the future by that Fenrir swatting him into that 'hole'. I've posted a poll on my profile to see if you want what I've done with Kurome in the original version of this fanfic to carry over into this one. The next chapter should hopefully cover both Kaito reuniting with Uni and the fight with Arfoire from the anime, although I've never been the best with fight scenes.**


	5. (Bonus) Families feelings

**A/N: This is just a short in between chapter for you guys; while I try to rough out the fight scene in the next actual chapter. Truthfully the chapter's finished, but it's taking me a while to smooth out some of the areas for pacing in it as well as tweaking the fight scene as well; if I need to I might do a chapter .75 to give a bit of light on what happened after Kaito met IF at the end of the last chapter as well. What'll be covered in this chapter is the reactions of Kaito's 'family' after he disappeared in the last chapter.**

Chapter .5

Lastation Basilicom: Uni's room

Day after Kaito's disappearance

Pov (Noire)

"Uni? How are you feeling?" I asked aloud after I entered her room after having knocked on her door and not receiving an answer.

"Go away." I heard Uni say from under her bed covers, "I want to be alone."

"Uni; you know that I feel the same way right now." I told her after I had walked over to her bed and sat down gently, "I want nothing more than to curl up in bed like you are, but I can't; I have a nation to run even if I feel like I can't."

"You don't know how I feel." she mumbled quietly.

"You're right; I don't know how you feel, but you don't know how I feel either. That's because the relationships that we had with him were completely different." I told her while letting out a sad sigh, "He raised you as if you were his own daughter; we both did. The relationship that I had with him was complicated; I couldn't tell him how I felt about him for two reasons.

"Those reasons were that one: I was too afraid to tell him my feeling incase he didn't feel the same ,and two: I would have outlived him, and didn't want to put either of us through that heartache." I told her while gently rubbing what I believed to be one of her thighs gently with a tear about to fall, "I'll tell you what I couldn't tell him though. Uni; I-I l-loved him, and now I can't ever tell him.

"I'll leave you alone now; Uni." I told her before standing up from where I was sitting on her bed, "I just wanted to let you know that I'm feeling the same way that you are."

P ov (Uni)

just after Noire left

' _Mama loved papa, but was too scared to tell him?'_ I thought as I rubbed some tears from my eyes, _'She sounded sad.'_

"What am I even doing with myself right now?" I asked myself quietly as I rolled onto my back to look at my ceiling, _'This isn't what I should be doing right now, but I can't find any kind of drive to move.'_

"What would you do in this situation; papa? how would you react to Mama or I disappearing?" I quietly asked hoping that he would answer, "What should I do?"

Passe

Chian's Office

Pov (Chian)

3 hours later

""What did you want to talk about today, Noire?" I asked the CPU after leading her to my office, "How's Kaito doing?"

"That's kind of what I wanted to talk about today." she said answering what I'm guessing was to be my first question while sounding sad, "We lost him yesterday."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'YOU LOST MY SON'?!" I yelled at the CPU after having heard what she said.

"We had a fight with a strange monster yesterday." She said trying to explain what had happened, "We thought that we had it beat, but with it's dying gasp it tried to hit me. Kaito took the hit for me and was knocked into a 'hole' of sorts. Uni and I searched the surrounding area for any sign of him, but we found none."

"Get out of here. I can't be around you right now." I told her while trying my hardest to hold back my tears.

"We'll find him." she told me after turning around and walking to the door, but said one more thing before she left, "I promise that we'll find him."

Once I was sure that she was gone; I let all my sadness out as I turned into a crying mess, and stayed that way for the next week.

Lastation's Guild Branch

Pov (Alexander)

same time as the above section

"How are you holding up, Kei?" I asked Lastations Oracle after we had entered my actual office, which had a small square table situated in the center with two chairs and a bookshelf with a desk on the side, in the guild, and not at my desk in the quest hall, "It was kind of a shock to hear that he vanished without a trace yesterday."

"To be honest; Uni's taking it the hardest; poor girls basically locked herself in her room and refuses to see or talk to anyone, but I would be a liar if I said I wasn't feeling anything right now." She said giving me an answer after I pulled out a chair for her.

"He will be missed." I told her as I took my chair across from her, "I have been keeping an eye on him since I got my job here and, I have to say, ever since he met Lady Black Heart and yourself he's seemed like he finally let himself truly be happy.

"Kaito and I had a unique friendship. We were always at odds with each other, but we grew on each other over time." I said as I continued my short tale, "He would always take more quests then I would necessarily recommend taking, and he would always come back heavily beaten; It got to the point that I started acting like an older brother for him. If I may ask though; what was your relationship with Kaito?"

"Where do I begin?" she said asking herself a question, "I guess You could say that I respect him greatly. He was persistent with Black Heart about the two of them being friends; there wasn't a day when the two of them weren't talking to each other. When Uni was born, you know what I mean by that, he didn't back down; in fact he took charge of that situation."

"He had a habit of exceeding people's expectation." I said after hearing her feelings about Kaito, "I'm certain that he'll return eventually; there was no body found, so there's every possibility that he's still alive."

"You're right about that; both things actually, but there's a feeling on loss at the basilicom right now." She said perking up slightly after having heard what I said.

"If I hear of anything about Kaito being spotted anywhere; I'll send you two messages. The first one will say Black and Black duet; the second will say the city that he was last seen in along with the date and time he was seen." I told her turning a little serious, "I expect you to do the same in return."

"You have yourself a deal." Kei said after a moment passed, "Anything to help those two."


	6. (Bonus) IF

**A/N: This in between chapter is to give more insight into how IF and Kaito interacted with each other after she found him in Virtua Forest; while I continue to smooth out the next actual chapter in some areas.**

Chapter .75

Small hospital in Planeptunes main city

The day after the end of Prologue part 4

Pov (Kaito)

Noon

"Who exactly are you?" IF asked me after she entered my hospital room, "I haven't tried looking you up in any databases yet because I wanted to hear it from you."

"Well for starters, as I told you yesterday, my name is Kaito Raglan." I told her as I turned to face her while I was sitting on my hospital bed, "My father's name was Rex and my mothers name is Chian. I'm a high ranking guild agent in the Lastation branch, but during a quest that I was cooperating on with the CPU; something happened and now I'm here. That was 15 years ago if I saw the date right on the newspaper this morning."

"You expect me to believe that you're a Lastation guild agent that could work with the CPU?" she asked me after she had taken a seat in the nearby chair, "Do you have any proof?"

"Do you know if Alexander still works at the Lastation branch?" I said asking her a counter-question, and getting a nod as my answer, "Give him a call if you can and tell him that 'Black' has returned. If he asks for a password after that; then tell him 'Black duet'. It's a code of sorts that he and I made, so we could know if it was actually us calling each other. There was so many identity frauds back then."

"What would calling Alex accomplish?" She asked me another question.

"Simple. He can send you my file." I said answering her question, "Tell him that I told you the code so you could make sure that I am who I say I am; also if you could, IF, can you ask him not to inform the CPU or CPU Candidate that I'm back, but to inform my mother that someone she cares about has returned."

"Fine, but after I'm done with the call you're telling me what your relationship with Noire and Uni is." she said before she stood up and walked to the door.

Lastation Guild branch: Alex's Office

Pov (Alex)

"Hello; Alex speaking." I said after answering my phone, "Who am I speaking to?"

 _"IF from the Planeptune branch."_ I heard a feminine voice say from the other side of the line.

"What would someone from Planeptune want with me?" I said asking the now named IF.

 _"Black has returned."_ She told me as my answer.

"What's the passcode." I requested while thinking to myself, _'If she says Black Duet'; then there's every chance that HE'S back."_

 _"He told me to say Black Duet."_ She said answering my request, _"I need to see the files on Kaito Raglan."_

"Why would you need to see those?" I said asking her a question as I walked over to my computer, that I had left once I answered the call.

 _"I found someone in Virtua Forest that claims to be him."_ was the answer that I got as I sat down, _"I want to confirm his identity."_

"Well I can send you his files; it'll take a minute or two finding his files though." I said while looking through the files on my screen, "Tell me what he looks like, and I might be able to confirm his identity for you right now."

 _"Well he has two different colored eyes; ones red and the other is a dark blue."_ IF told me from her end of the line, _"His hair starts off as a light brown, but it fades out to white. He was wearing a black trench coat over a white shirt and black pants."_

"Sounds like the Kaito I know." I told her, "I just found his file; I'll temporarily link it to your account for half an hour. Just promise me that you won't misuse this information."

 _"You have my word."_ She said as I linked the file to her account, _"One more thing though; He wanted me to tell you to let his mother know that she's going to be getting an unexpected visitor soon, and that you shouldn't tell Lady Noire or Uni that he's back; because he wants to make a full recovery, catch up on events and tech, as well as visiting a place that he can only go to while in Planeptune."_

"Will do." I said as I ended the call, "She didn't say anything about Kei. I'll just relay the message as it was given to me as to her though."

30 minutes later

Planeptune Hospital

Pov (IF)

"Well your story checked out, and Alex said that he'd do what you requested." IF said after she re-entered the room, "Now what's your relationship with the Lastation sisters?"

"Part of what I'm about to tell you is a highly classified secret and needs to stay that way for the time being, so it may seem unbelievable." I said as she took her seat in the same chair, "A very long story short is that I met Noire while I was searching for materials and ended up kicking a dragon in the face; after that I was hired at the basilicom to help with some of Noire's workload.

"Six months later Uni was born, but unlike the other CPU Candidates she was born as a newborn baby so I helped Noire raise Uni." I told IF with a bright smile on my face at the happy memories, "Uni was my little girl, and always will be. As for my relationship with Noire that's simple; I love her, but I couldn't ever bring myself to tell her for two reasons. The first of which is that I'm afraid that she wouldn't feel the same."

"What's the second reason?" IF asked me after I had taken a moment to catch my breath.

"She would outlive me, and I didn't want to put either of us through that kind of pain." I said answering her question, "Before you ask why I don't want to return to Lastation right away; that's because I want to completely recover first, catch up on current events and tech, and to visit a place that I can only go to while i'm in Planeptune."

"Where is it that you want to visit?" IF asked me after having heard my reasons for not wanting to return to Lastation right away.

Taking a breath before answering her; I thought about how I wanted to answer. "My father's grave." I said shocking IF with my answer, "Now leaving that topic; when's my release date, and did Alex ask you to tell me anything? I'm getting tired of this sterile white room."

"You should be out later today." IF said giving me an answer that was quite pleasing to hear, "The nurse wanted me to tell you in her place; seeing as I was coming to visit. As for if Alex wanted me to tell you anything; the answer is yes. Although it wasn't over the call; he sent it as a message after he ended the call."

"What did he want to say?" I asked her trying to think of what it could be.

"'Welcome back; you insufferable moron' was the first part, and 'You have a lot of explaining to do once you get back.'" she said answering me, "Would you mind if I tagged along with you while you're in Planeptune? Just to keep an eye on you of course."

"Only if you tell that nurse Compa that she doesn't need to wrap the bandages so tight." I said answering her question with a request of my own as I pulled the collar of my shirt to look down at my slightly bandaged chest, "Thought I was gonna suffocate."

"Everyone's tried." IF said in response to my request, "I'll say something though."


	7. Chapter 1: Rescue and Reunion

**Chapter 1**

Leanbox Basilicom

Pov (IF)

2 weeks after Prologue part 4

"This isn't going to work." I said out loud as I sat next to Compa while the two of us were watching the Candidates training to get stronger in order to save their sisters.

"What do you mean, Iffy?" Compa asked me as the Candidates had finished off the Ancient Dragon simulation that the had been fighting thanks to Lady Verts new virtual reality product.

"They won't be able to get strong enough to transform just by doing this." I said answering her while I stood up and started walking to the door of the room, "Even though I loath to do this; I'm going to call in additional help; someone I trust from the guild that I believe is in Leanbox right now."

"Where's IF going?" I heard Nepgear, Planeptunes CPU Candidate, ask Compa just before I exited the room.

Walking through the halls of the basilicom; I eventually reached the Patio that Lady Vert has in the back that she always uses when she has guests over. I made sure that I was alone before pulling out one of my phones; I looked for a very recent addition to my contact list before pressing the call button. "Hey it's me." I said to the other person on the line, "You're in Leanbox like I asked you to be right? Something happened; something bad, and we need you to help us. It involves your family."

After waiting for the other person's response; I said, "Come around the back of the Basilicom to the patio, and have your mask on; we don't need to have Uni freak out with everyone present."

20 minutes later

Pov (Kaito)

"I'm here; IF." I said as I arrived at where she had told me; my face being covered by a white mask that covered the lower half of my face and a hood hiding my hair.

"Glad that you could get here quickly." IF said as I walked up to her, "You nervous?"

"Very." I said answering her question, "Let's get this meeting over with, so I can reveal who I am to Uni in private."

"Anything in particular that you want me to call you?" She asked me before we entered the Basilicom.

"Black." I said answering IF with a code name for myself.

Five minutes later

"Girls this here is Black, and he's going to help us." IF said 'introducing' me to the group of girls; the only two of which I was familiar with were Compa and Uni.

"Nice to meet all of you." I said greeting the four Candidates and Compa while deepening my voice so Uni wouldn't recognize me right away, "IF has informed me about the situation, and about who each of you are. I promise to help you get your sisters back.

"I would like to talk to each of the Candidates in private; one on one except for the twins, so I can get a feel for your personalities and skills." I informed them without giving them any time to say anything, "I would like to start with Lastations Candidate."

"Who are you to ask for such a thing!?" Uni said demanding an answer from me, "You expect us to trust you enough to be alone with you even though we just you!?"

"He can be trusted Uni." IF said defending me before walking over to her and whispering something into Uni's ear.

"Fine, but if you try anything; then you're gonna regret it." Uni said letting out a sigh.

"I can live with that." I said relenting to what Uni had said.

After IF had ushered out everyone else she said that they'd be in the living room before she shut the door. As soon as the door was shut, and we were sure that the rest of the girls were out of earshot, Uni turned to me and said, "Who are you really? IF told me that you were someone that my 'sister' and I know."

"Well you should know me." I said letting my voice return to normal and pulling down my hood and mask, "After all; I helped raise you."

"PAPA!" Uni exclaimed teary eyed in shock after she saw my face, "What happened to you, and why didn't you come back to Lastation?!"

"I can't really explain it that well, but I ended up in a weird void for what felt like a few minutes to me before I got spat back out in Planeptune two weeks ago." I said trying my best to explain what had happened, "I didn't come back right away because I needed time to recover, and get used to the new tech that has come out. Now come give me a hug for the first time in 15 years. How'd my mother handle my disappearance?"

"Not very good; She didn't blame mama and I because she knew how you are, but she took it very hard." Uni said before she ran into my waiting arms, "I'm glad that you're back!"

"Me too Uni; me too. We don't really have time for an emotional reunion right now though; no matter how much we may want one." I said as I wrapped my arms around her and rested my chin on top of her head, "We just need to get your mama back, and our family will be complete again."

"Was talking to the Candidates alone just an excuse to get me alone, so we could reunite in private?" Uni asked me after we ended our minute long hug.

"In a way it was. I really do want to get a feel for the other Candidates personalities, so I can figure out what's holding them back." I said answering her question while pulling up my mask, "Can you send in the twins next?"

"Sure papa." Uni said giving me a bright smile before turning towards the door, but before she left; she asked me one last question, "If I may ask; what's holding me back?"

"I have a feeling that you need something traumatic to spark your transformation for the first time." I answered her seriously while once again deepening my voice and pulling up my mask and hood, _'I think I know what needs to happen too; even though I don't want it to come to that.'_ I thought to myself

Island off the coast of Leanbox

one hour later

"Nepgear; after thinking over what you've told me about yourself; I believe it's your belief that your sister will stop babying you that's keeping you from transforming." I informed said girl from my seat across from her in the back of Compa's jeep, "Rom, Ram; I'm sorry, but I couldn't really get a read on the two of you but I will say this though; believe in yourselves and you will overcome any adversity."

"You seem so confident in what you're saying mister Black. Why is that?" Compa asked me from the driver's seat.

Looking towards IF, who was driving her motorcycle with Uni riding behind her, I said, "I'm so confident because I have faith in the people fighting beside me right now, so have some faith in me in return. I trust each of you with my back, so I expect the same from all of you."

"We're getting close now, so get ready for a fight." IF said pulling up closer to the jeep, "Especially you, Black. You're one of the strongest people I know, so I'm expecting you to pull more than your share here."

"I was already planning on it IF." I informed her as we reached the Island and we had all gotten out of our respective modes of transportation, "Let's get this show on the road!" I exclaimed as I summoned my sword in its usual black swirl.

Quickly dashing up the hill; I saw a literal army of mechanical monsters ranging from simple bits all the way to spider tanks. "There's so many." Nepgear said nervously as she and the others arrived at the top of the hill.

"Uni, Rom, Ram, and Compa; I want the four of you to lay down cover from up here while Nepgear, IF, and I descend the hill. Once we have a solid foothold I want the four of you to follow us." I said laying out a strategy for us.

Not waiting for any of them to respond; I quickly descended the hill towards the army of machines. Once I reached the bottom I quickly started to dispatch the enemies in front of me one after another. Feeling a blast go right by my head; I looked over my shoulder at Uni and nodded at her.

"That was reckless Black, but you wouldn't be yourself if you weren't reckless." IF said as she reached the bottom of the hill along with Nepgear; both of them with their weapons ready.

"Remember what I told you Nepgear; believe in yourself and let your true power show!" I said trying to motivate the girl before turning back to the fight.

After returning to the fight; I flung my sword into one of the mechanical spider tanks that was about to fire an attack at the four on the hill and successfully hit its core; ending it's false life. Unable to get to my sword I opted to use the martial artes, that Tekken had taught me while I was with her and Falcom, and summoned my gauntlet and started punching and kicking the machines that approached me.

"Blazing Fist!" I yelled before I slammed my flaming fist into an R-4 that had been trying to attack me. After my fist entered the machine, I yelled out, "Immolation!" causing an eruption of flames to blast out from the opposite side of the R-4 and swallow some of the small bits that were behind it in a small wave of flames. Retrieving my sword in the resulting calm

As the fight against the slowly dwindling mechanical army progressed; Uni and the others that had been up on the hill had joined the fight at the base. At a certain point Nepgear had managed to transform, and the army of machines had been decimated shortly after that.

"All that's left is the final boss now." I said as we were all taking a breather from the fight that we had just been through.

"We shouldn't take to long here." IF informed us, "We have no idea what's going on with the CPU's."

After another minute of resting it was time to get moving again. "Keep your guards up girls; we have no way of knowing if the enemy has laid any traps." I said giving a word of warning as I pulled down my mask in order to breath better, "No offence to the two of you but, IF and Compa, I want the two of you to hang back out of this next fight, so the two of you can try to free the CPU's while the Candidates and I cause a distraction."

10 minutes later

After another short walk to where the CPU's were being held; we saw a pinkish red pyramid that appeared to be half full of a black sludge and the CPU's in there human forms suspended above the sludge. "It appears that the cavalry has arrived. You may call me Arfoire my humble opponents." A grey skinned woman wearing what appeared to be a witches outfit said

"That's right!" I said aloud letting my voice return to it's normal tone, "You have no hope for victory here, so give up!"

"I wouldn't be to sure about that!" the witch exclaimed as a red light surrounded her.

"You can't be serious!" Uni shouted as the light died down revealing the witch to now be wearing a rather revealing outfit with two large wings that looked like they had detachable bits on them coming from her back.

"That's not fair!" Ram shouted at this sudden reveal.

"This was never going to be easy now was it." I asked myself before charging in with my sword covered in black flames; Nepgear following closely behind me; her gunblade at the ready, but it was all for naught.

The battle was largely against us because our enemy revealed that she could use all of the skills and powers of the CPU's that she had captive. None of us were able to deal any damage to our enemy, I had been blasted, rather painfully, into the ground about 50 feet from where Uni was located, and we were taking a lot of damage. _'Not even my Obsidian Break would work here!'_ I thought to myself while quickly trying to think of a strategy as I tried to pull myself out of the small crater and body shaped hole I had created when I hit the ground. My thought were quickly interrupted though when I saw Rom and Ram transforming when Nepgear started getting beaten into the ground.

Our odds Improved slightly once the twins had transformed, but we still weren't able to do any lasting damage; only minor injuries that quickly healed. _'I might have to use THAT here.'_ I once again said in my thoughts, referring to the CPU memory that I had kept in my left coat pocket, after I had managed to pull myself out of the ground, but was once again interrupted from my thoughts when I saw Uni get targeted by Arfoire. "NO!" I shouted, a look of pure horror on my face, taking off in a sprint that was faster than anything that I had been able to do before. What I had seen was Arfoire throwing her weapon, which had turned into a spear, at Uni hoping to impale her, but I was faster than her weapon; just not fast enough to deflect it.

"PAPA/KAITO!" both Uni and Noire shouted respectively as I was Impaled through my stomach, causing me to cough up some blood and a searing pain to erupt in my torso, by the thrown weapon instead of Uni.

"Are you okay, Uni?" I asked her while breathing heavily from the pain, my vision clouded partially as the weapon in my stomach disappeared causing some blood to spew out of both sides of the wound, and causing me to collapse.

"Why did you do that?" Uni asked me with tears in her eyes as she fell to her knees and cradle my head in her lap. Unknown to both of us; me taking the hit for her served as the traumatic experience that she needed in order to transform.

"I promised myself that if it ever came down to it; I would give my life to keep you safe. You're my baby girl after all." I told her quietly with my right hand on her cheek, and discreetly reaching into my coats left pocket, "Go save your mama; I'll be fine. Don't worry,"

"You better not die on us papa!" Uni told me before taking off to join the other Candidates in the battle.

' _Well no time like the present.'_ I thought to myself before pulling the CPU memory that Drake had given me out of my coats pocket and carefully putting it in my mouth before swallowing it.

Pov (Nepgear)

Just after Kaito got impaled

"Is he gonna be alright?" I heard Ram ask after everyone present saw Black get impaled in order to keep Uni safe.

"I hope he's gonna make it." Rom said answering her twin.

"Why would he?" I asked myself not believing what we saw.

After almost an entire minute of silence Uni, who we were overjoyed to see had transformed, joined us from where she had left Black, and told us with what appeared to be a slightly tear-stained face, "We need to finish this and quickly."

Not even a moment after she said that; a massive explosion of light erupt from where Black was laying.

Pov (Noire)

Just after Kaito got impaled

"That Idiot!" I said trying to fight back tears, "Missing for 15 years; only to come back and die!?"

"Who is that man to you, Noire?" Vert asked me as we continued to watch the battle that raged on outside.

"Who even is he?" Blanc asked me.

"I'll tell you three after we get out of here. I can't talk about it right now." I answered Vert just before we felt and saw a massive explosion of light from where we had seen Uni leave Kaito, "What's happening now?"

Pov (Kaito)

White void

Just after swallowing the CPU memory

"Where am I this time?" I asked aloud after seeing that I was in another void; this one white in color and completely empty.

"Inside your soul; for a lack of a better term." I heard a male voice say from behind me.

When I turned around; I saw what I could only describe as a palette swapped version of myself. Where I was wearing white and black; he was wearing black and white respectively. "If we're in my 'soul' as you put it; then who are you?" I asked the man that had appeared.

"No time to explain who I am at this moment. I'm here to give you a warning, and nothing more." he said while walking closer to me, "You need to learn how to get the new powers you've attained under control; otherwise you run the risk of hurting those close to you."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked him before he tapped me on my forehead.

"Don't worry about that now; I'll force run Sacred Drive Divinity, or SDD for short, for you." He said as he lightly pushed me back, "Now watch closely; I'll show you how it's done."

 **(Play Day of Fate ~Spirit VS Spirit~)**

"What is this power?" I asked myself feeling better than I ever had before as the light that surrounded me died down revealing me in a new form; my wound completely healed. I now had deep black hair that went to the middle of my back in length instead of my normal medium length hair that started out a light brown while fading to white, my left eye was now a sea foam green instead of a deep blue while my right eye was a blood red instead of dark crimson, I was wearing a skin tight silver shirt and black pants, armor plated boots, and a white knee length trench coat. After taking a moment to get a feel for my new abilities I turned to Arfoire, letting the other me take over for a moment, and said, "Arfoire you have angered me to the point that I won't ever forgive you!"

"What are you!?" the witch yelled, surprised by my sudden transformation, at me before detaching all of the bits from her wings, and trying to blast me with them.

"No you don't; I won't let you hurt him again! EX MULTI BLASTER!" Uni yelled before blasting the bits and destroying them with her railgun.

Disappearing from where I was standing; I reappeared in front of Arfoire with my fist cocked back with a flaming gauntlet ready to strike, "Eat this! Blazing Fist!" I yelled at her as I struck her in her stomach hard enough to fling her into the ground and form a small crater around her.

Landing on the ground next to the Candidates; my gauntlet gone and my sword now drawn **(When in SDD Kaito's sword takes on Eryns second fury form)** ; we were all surrounded by a glowing rainbow aura that was growing stronger by the second. After a momentary stare down with Arfoire, who had slowly pulled herself out of the small crater that I had put her in; Uni was the one to start off our speech, "For trying to take the two I care for the most; you will be judged."

Next to speak was Nepgear, "You cannot be forgiven for this."

Then Rom, "You won't escape here unscathed."

After Rom was Ram, "This will be the last time you do anything like this."

' _I'll let you take the reins from here,' The pallet swapped version of me mentally told me , 'You should be able to finish this. Focus and keep this in mind; I believe in you, and those two need you.'_

Finally was myself, "For attempting to take the life of the one I call my daughter; you will face my wrath." With each of our parts finished the auras surrounding us got stronger and stronger until they exploded out of us in every direction.

"What is this? Share Energy Resonance?!" Arfoire asked herself more than anyone else.

"EX Multi Blaster! Mode Empress!" Uni said calling out the name of her strongest attack, and completely shattering one of Arfoire's wings with the resulting beam that that was fired from her railgun.

"Ice Coffin!" Rom and Ram both said jointly summoning a giant ice star before launching it at Arfoire; hitting her right into the very pyramid that she was using to keep the CPU's prisoner.

"This is the end! M.P.B.L. Overdrive!" Nepgear said before firing a rainbow colored beam.

"Take This! OBSIDIAN BURST!" I yelled as I swung my sword, which had extended by five feet with rainbow colored flames, at the same time as Nepgear fired her beam.

The resulting combination attack resulted in an explosion of energy as the pyramid shattered. After the explosion died down; the CPU's were nowhere to be found.

 **(End song)**

"Neptune; where are you?" Nepgear asked aloud as if trying to wish her sister to be in front of her.

"We're fine Nepgear." a voice from above us said.

Looking up we saw the CPU's floating in the air; all of them looking perfectly fine, and were quickly tackled into a hug by their respective sisters. All except for Black Heart and Uni that is. "Is that really you, Kaito?" Black Heart asked me, hopeful tears in her eyes, as she landed on the ground.

"It is." I said answering her question as a white light surrounded me once again as I was forced to revert to my human form, "Although I seem to be different now."

Upon seeing me after the light died down; Black Heart couldn't hold her tears back any longer, and slowly approached me before giving me a bone crushing hug as she cried.

"I'm not gonna go anywhere this time if I can help it." I whispered to the woman hugging me as I returned her hug, "Sorry for taking so long to come back."

"Not to interrupt this tender moment, but who exactly are you?" a woman, who I could only assume was Purple Heart, asked after having given Black Heart and I a moment.

"Can I introduce myself back at Leanbox's Basilicom?" I countered the question with another question after Black Heart released me from her embrace; allowing me breathe once again, "This really isn't the place to do so."

"We owe him at least that much." A woman wearing a rather revealing, even for CPU standards, outfit and a long seafoam green ponytail said answering my request.

 **A/N:** **So what do all of you think of the chapter? or even the rewrite so far for that matter? I haven't ever been the best at writing out fight scenes, but I tried the best that I could.**


	8. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Leanbox Basilicom living room

Pov (Kaito)

2 hours after the end of the last chapter

"So now that we're here; can you tell us who you are exactly?" Vert, who along with the other CPU's gave me her name after she had reverted to her human form, asked me once we had all been seated, "You've given us your name, but nothing else."

"Well as I've stated before; my name is Kaito Raglan. I originally met Noire around 16 years when I was searching for materials for my sword, and ended up surprising both her and an Ancient Dragon by drop kicking said Ancient Dragon in the face." I said giving them some backstory on how I met Noire while I leaned back into the light green sofa I had been sinning in and looked up at the ceiling, "I didn't know who she was at the time, but the village elder, who had shown me the way to the cave where she was at, had asked me to help her if I had seen her; so I did. A week later I had a meeting with her Oracle, and was hired to work at her Basilicom."

"Well that explains how the two of you met each other, but what comes after that? Why do the two of you seen so close?" Neptune, Purple Hearts more carefree human form, asked me from her seat across from me.

"I was getting to that." I responded to her question before continuing my story, "For the next six months after that; Noire and I went on many quests together to raise Lastations Shares. Now this is the interesting part; Eventually Uni was born, but she wasn't born the same as the other Candidates."

"What do you mean by that?" Blanc, White Hearts less aggressive human form, interrupted me with a question.

"She was born as a newborn baby." I said giving Blanc her answer and shocking everyone, except for Noire; Uni; and IF, present, "We still have no idea how or why though, but she quickly grew into her current age over the course of a year. It was the best year of my life though, and I wouldn't trade it for anything."

"Why's that?" Nepgear asked me from Neptunes left; still trying to get over her shock.

"First of all; I was reunited with my mother, and that was on the same day that Uni was born. Speaking of which I have to give her a call later seeing as I haven't done that yet." I informed them while answering Nepgear's question, "Secondly; I got to know the joy of being a father; since Noire and I essentially raised Uni from a newborn. Whenever I wasn't helping Noire with her work or out questing; I was playing with Uni."

"He's not lying." Noire said from her spot on my left getting everyone except from Uni and I to look at her, "Those two were almost inseparable after Uni was born. They did almost everything together. He'd read her bedtime stories, take her to the local park, comfort her when she had nightmares, and everything in between."

"Anyway back to the story." I said trying to steer the conversation away from that topic, "After that year the three of us, Noire; Uni; and I, decided to check on some distortions in Westwind Ravine. The distortions ended up being these weird 'holes' that corrupted weak willed creatures. I was swatted into one of those 'holes', but since I wasn't weak willed I stayed myself. On the inside of the 'hole'; it was explained to me that the distortions were caused by another dimension passing by this one, and that time moves differently inside the 'hole."

"When did this happen exactly?" Vert asked me from her seat on Neptunes right.

"Roughly 15 years ago from what I was able to piece together." I said giving Vert her answer, causing everyone except Noire, Uni, and IF to gain a shocked expression, before continuing, "I didn't see the being that explained these thing to me, but it was very apologetic; it even gave me the item that turned me into that form I had against Arfoire. Once it had finished explaining things to me; I appeared in Virtua Forest in Planeptune about two weeks ago, but I was extremely drained of all energy. That's when I met IF."

"When I saw him stumble out of those bushes asking for help; I felt like I had to help him." IF said speaking up from her seat next to Compa, "I brought him to Planeptunes hospital shortly after finding him, and he gave me a brief overview on who he was. I double checked with a contact in Lastations guild branch, and sure enough he was in their records."

"Why didn't you tell me anything about this, Iffy?" Neptune asked IF as she turned to face the girl she was talking to; a miffed expression on her face.

"He asked me not to tell anyone about him. He didn't want to reunite with Noire and Uni when he was that weak." IF said answering Neptunes question, "He also wanted to meet all of the other CPU's at the same time, so I told him of Lady Vert's plan to have a party after 5pB's upcoming concert; figuring that would be the best time for both their reunion and introducing him to the rest of you."

 _Flashback_

 _Small hospital in Planeptune_

 _One day after the end of prologue part 4_

 _Pov (Kaito)_

 _"You're expecting me to believe you when you say that you're a member of the Guild in Lastation, that you and Noire are Uni's 'parents' in a way," IF asked me from her seat next to the hospital bed that I was currently laying in, "and that you disappeared close to 15 years ago?"_

 _"Sounds unbelievable doesn't it?" I said answering her question with one of my own, "If you can; call the Lastation guild and ask for Alexander, and tell him that Black has returned. If he asks for a code or password tell him: Black Duet"_

 _"What would that accomplish?" IF asked me after having heard my request._

 _"Two reasons actually." I said answering her question, "The first one is that he can confirm that I am who I say I am."_

 _"What's the second reason?" IF asked after hearing my first reason._

 _"So that an old friend can be ready for my return," I said giving her my second reason, "but tell him to Inform my mother Chian that someone she thought lost is back; but not to tell Noire or Uni that I'm back yet; I'll take care of those two myself. The reason for that is that I want to take time to recover, read up on current events, and get used to some of the new technology that's come out; besides those there's a place I want to visit on my own before I go back to Lastation."_

 _"Sounds reasonable." She said after hearing the second reason along with my reasoning for not wanting to go back to Lastation right away._

 _Flashback End_

"Well that explains why Iffy's seemed a little distracted lately." Neptune said turning back to face me.

"Anything else that all of you want to know about me?" I asked everyone present.

"You mentioned your mother earlier, but not your father." Blanc said getting my attention, "Why was that?"

I let out a sigh before answering her, "My father passed away while he was trying to protect me when I was five."

Upon hearing my answer Blanc quickly apologized for bringing up that painful memory, but I waved it off by saying that she had no way of knowing. "Who is your mother then?" Vert asked after having let a moment pass.

"Chian Raglan; owner and operator of the Passe factory in Lastation." I said giving Vert her answer, "Any other questions? If not; then It'll be a pleasure working you for the foreseeable future. I'll try to make a visit to the other nations in the near future."

Outside Lastations Basilicom

1 day later

"It's good to be back home." I said out loud before we entered the Basilicom after a day long boat ride from Leanbox.

"Don't get too relaxed." Noire told me, "You need to go see your mother before anything else."

"I was planning on it." I said before turning my head to look at Uni, "You want to come with, Uni?"

"Sure!" Uni said happily, "I still have a lot to tell you; papa."

"We should be back in an hour; two at the most depending on how long my mother wants to both talk to and chew me out for disappearing." I told Noire before Uni and I turned towards the direction of the factory district, "I'll make lunch when we get back."

 _'Can you hear me?'_ a voice so faint that I barely heard it asked, but I thought that it was coming from a person talking on their phone as they sat on a nearby bench; so i ignored it.

Passe

20 minutes later

"Are you ready for this papa?" Uni asked me. She was calling me papa out in public because she was wearing her 'disguise', which was only a pair of red rimmed glasses; the exact same as Noire.

Instead of giving her a verbal answer; I decided to just open the door and usher her in. Once Uni and I had entered the restaurant portion of Passe; we saw that it was empty of customers. "I'll be right out." we heard a voice call out from the presumed kitchen. After a few moments had passed a woman that I had become very familiar with, even if she looked older, with slightly graying hair, than the last time I had seen her, had come out of a door while drying her hands with her eyes closed, "What can I get for y-" she cut herself off once she opened her eyes and saw me with who she had recognised as a disguised Uni; presumably put the pieces together; and yelled my name with watery eyes, "KAITO?!"

"The one and only." I said answering her shouted question, "I'm back, mom."

"Where'd you go? When did you get back? Why didn't you call!?"" She said rapid firing questions at me as she quickly made her way around the counter.

"Well to answer your questions in order; I pushed Noire out of the way of an attack and got swatted into a 'hole' between dimensions. I was in said 'hole' between dimensions for what felt like mere minutes to me, but was actually 15 years for everyone here. Lastly; I got back about two weeks ago, but I was too caught up in trying to recover and getting used to some of the new tech that's been released." I said giving my mother, Chian, her answers, "I'm sorry for not calling you sooner."

"That's alright; just so long as your back." Chian said, letting go of her anger and sadness because of, what I'm guessing was, the joy she felt from seeing me again, as she gave me a hug.

"Is there somewhere private that we can sit down and talk to each other here mom?" I asked the woman hugging me as I returned the hug, "I have some news that I don't want the populace to know about just yet."

"Just let me lock the door; then we can go to my office." She said answering me after letting me out of her embrace, "Before we go; how've you been doing lately Uni? You don't come in all that often anymore, and I know I've been distant from you and your sister since Kaito disappeared." Chian asked Uni as she walked over to the door, flipped the open sign to closed, and locked the door.

"I'm able to transform now; even though I'm not happy about what it took to get me to transform for the first time." Uni said sadly answering Chian's question.

"What do you mean by that?" Chian asked Uni again.

"I'll explain that part once we're in your office." I said answering the question for Uni.

Once we were in my mother's office that could oversee the factory portion of Passe, she turned to me and asked, "What's the need to be so secretive about?"

I took a deep breath to relax a little bit before I began speaking by asking her a counter question, "Do you know of my actual relationship with Uni here, mom?" I asked Chian as I leaned against the closed door.

"All I was told was that you helped train her by Kei; she said something about you having been busy for an unforeseeable amount of time; I can't quite remember, but she may have said something about you treating her like family." Chian said answering me, "Why is that not all there is too it?"

"Not in the least; although it was to be treated as a highly classified secret, so I can see why she didn't tell you the full story. I figured that Kei would have told you the full story, but it was being treated as a top-tier secret, but nothing beats the present." I said informing her that she hadn't gotten the full story, "When Uni was born; she wasn't her current age, but she was a newborn baby. I never mentioned anything about it; because I thought you already knew."

"Where are you going with this?" Chian asked me while she attempted to put the pieces, that I had given her, together.

"He raised me." Uni said answering Chian's question rather bluntly, "He's my papa."

"She got that bluntness from me I guess, but when you put it bluntly like that; then yeah I'm her papa. It may not be by blood, but she's my daughter and your granddaughter." I said sighing at the way that Uni had let the cat out of the bag, "She grew up very fast. Almost too fast if you ask me; over the course of a single year she went from a newborn to what you see here today."

"You mean that this is the same child that you brought in whenever you came in during that year after we met!? I thought you were just doing community service with an orphanage." Chian asked before she started giving me praise, "Well obviously you did a good job raising her, but how does your relationship have to do with what caused Uni to transform?"

"She needed a traumatic experience to get over her mental hurdle." I said causing a light to go off in my mother's head, "Yesterday the CPU's were being held captive, and the Candidates and I rescued them."

"What did you do?" Chian asked me referring to what I put Uni through.

"She had been targeted by our enemy with a fatal attack, and my body reacted on instinct." I said answering her question, "Before I knew it; I was in front of the attack with a spear through my stomach."

"Papa took the blow for me." Uni said sadly while looking at the floor, "He told me that he had made a promise to himself that he would give his life if it meant that I could live."

"Sounds just like his father." Chian said sighing, "Anything happen after that, and why are you not in a hospital if you took a hit like that?"

"That would be because of an item I was give while I was inside of that 'hole' called a CPU memory." I said answering Chians question, "I used it just after Uni rejoined the fight, caused a massive explosion of light shortly after using it, and temporarily became a CPU. At least I believe it was temporary anyway."

"Anything else?" my mother asked me.

"Not much else besides meeting the other CPU's." I answered her before pushing myself of the door, "I'll come by sometime in the near future, so we can spend the day together; just the two of us. I'll let you know when I go visit Planeptune next; there's a place there that I want you to visit."

"I'll hold you too that." my mother said before walking up to me and giving me a hug, "It's good to have you back, son."

"It's good to be back, mom." I said returning her hug, "Would you like to join Noire, Uni, Kei, and I for lunch? I'm cooking today."

"I suppose I can close up the restaurant and give the factory workers a break for once, so sure; I'll join you for lunch." Chian said answering my question before letting me out of her embrace, "You two go on ahead; I'll tell the workers that they can go home for the day, and then I'll be over."

 _'Can you hear me now?'_ I heard the same faint voice from earlier say, but thought that I was just hearing things.

Lastation Basilicom

Kitchen

25 minutes later

"Kaito, do you have time to speak?" Kei asked after she got my approval to enter the kitchen.

"Just have to talk while I cook." I said answering her while I pulled out the necessary utensils for what I was planning to cook, "What's up?"

"First of all; I'd like to say welcome back, and that Alex and I always believed you'd return." The silver haired girl told me while I moved over to the fridge for the necessary ingredients, "What are you planning on making? Uni's favorite curry; perhaps?"

"Not this time, but maybe next time." I said answering another one of her questions, "Just a simple stir fry today."

Lastation Basilicom

Dining room

50 minutes later

"What's for lunch?" my mother asked me as I entered the dining room with a covered tray in my arms.

"Nothing fancy; just a simple stir fry." I said answering her question before placing the tray on the table and removing the lid, "Hope everyone enjoys it."

"I'm sure that we will." Noire told me before taking I served everyone a portion.

"This brings back memories." Kei said after I placed her portion in front of her, "It's good to have you back, Kaito."

"It's good to be back, Kei." I told the silver haired tomboy as I sat down in my seat next to Noire, "You all can start whenever you want."

"Don't mind if we do." Uni said before taking the first bite.

"You're a surprisingly good cook." I heard my mother say as I started feeling lightheaded, but I played it off as I started eating myself.

' _How about now?'_ The same voice asked again; even louder than before, but I still played it off as if I was hearing things.

As the five of us continued eating and talking with each other; my lightheadedness only got worse until the point I lost consciousness.

' _Finally got you to hear me; although I didn't want to do it this way, but you didn't leave me any choice.'_ I heard the same voice from earlier say just before I hit table, out cold.

White Void

Unknown time

"Sorry about bringing you here that way, but you kept ignoring me." The palette swapped version of me said before offering me a hand to help me up.

"You just had to do it while we were all having a nice lunch?" I asked him as I grabbed his hand and allowed him to help me up, "You going to tell me who and what you are this time?"

"To your first question; I didn't know you were eating." he said answering my first question while letting go of my hand, "As for your second question; that's a bit complicated."

"What do you mean by complicated?" I said asking him another question.

"Well essentially I'm you." he said answering both my questions at the same time before elaborating further, "Basically I'm another version you from another dimension, but I messed up big time."

"What do you mean you messed up?" I said asking him yet another question, but thinking I already knew the answer.

"I gave into my rage." he said solemnly and with a slightly shaking voice; while looking at the ground trying, but failing, to hide the few tears that had formed in the corners of his eyes, "I saw both Noire and Uni die right in front of me; slain by someone I thought I could trust. Unable to contain the feelings of loss and anger; I lost all control over myself, turned into a mindless rage monster, and killed everyone I considered a friend and enemy; even though I didn't want to, but I regained myself after some time had passed. It's why I look the way I do now; I've been corrupted by negative energy and hate.

"Being filled with guilt over what I had done; I searched for a way to redeem myself, and that's when 'Drake' reached out to me. He said that I could redeem myself and atone for what I had done by helping another version of myself from going down the same path that I had, so after taking his offer I was shoved into the CPU memory that you swallowed yesterday. Personally I wouldn't trust him further that I could throw him, but I was desperate."

"So that's what you meant by 'learn to control your new powers or you'll end up hurting those close to you' then." I said after hearing his short story, "Anything else that you want to tell me?"

"One more thing actually." he told me as he raised his head to look at me, "You can call me Edric instead of Kaito, and that for the time being we're going to be two sides of the same coin."

"Well then Edric; I look forward to helping you, and having your help in return." I said as met his gaze, "One last question though."

"What is it?" he asked me tilting his head slightly.

"Two things actually. What exactly are we?" I said voicing my question, "I've never heard of a male CPU; Also what's going to happen to you after you're redeemed?"

"We're what's known as an Alpha Player Link, or APL for short, and one of two things will happen; either we'll split into two beings or I'll simply fade out of existence." he said giving me my answer, "I'll start teaching you how to properly use your new abilities in a couple days, so your body can properly adjust to having Share Energy flowing through it, and transform for the first time. You'll need a trigger for your first transformation just like the candidates did; I could only force run SDD once for you. It's up to you to figure out what that trigger is."

Black Void

Just after the above segment

Pov ('Drake')

"Well it seems like those two have come to an agreement." I said to myself as I formed my physical body inside of my void; having decided to not be a disembodied voice anymore, "I sure hope that they can entertain me."

After my body had fully formed for the first time in eons; I materialised a mirror in front of me to see what I was wearing. "Why was this the last thing I wore?" I asked myself after seeing that I was wearing a white suit with a black tie.

Snapping my fingers; my outfit changed from the white suit to a set of black pants with matching combat boots, no shirt to reveal a chiseled torso, a sleeveless long coat, and a bandelier across my chest with a sword attached to the back.

"That's better." I told myself before dismissing the mirror and turning around to see an unconscious red-haired female that was wearing white tank top with a brown belt-like segment on the top and bottom, underneath a blue and white jacket with gold accents. Her skirt is white with thick strips of blue in the center and worn with a brown belt with gold details and a small orange and black pouch attached. She was also wearing are black fingerless gloves, black stockings, and blue boots with white, black, and gold accents.

"I guess it's time I return his mentor to him. I think I'll drop her in Planeptune like I did him." I, once again, said to myself. After a moment the female vanished, "Still regret that I had a part in his father's death though; a shame really. It would've been a real treat to pit those two against each other; just like I did Edric and Larvayne."

 **A/N:** **The last part of this chapter may or may not stay. Kaito and Edric are going to be like Uzume and Kurome in a way. You know; the whole light and dark scenario. Edric is kind of how I would picture Kaito if he had to go through the ending from MK2 that I refuse to name (** _You all know the one I'm talking about_ **). I'm also going to put up a poll to see if you guys would want to see Edric separate from Kaito instead of disappearing after his atonement.**


	9. Chapter 3: Some family history

Chapter 3

Lastation Basilicom's living room

Pov (Kaito)

2 p.m.

When I started to come too after my talk with Edric; the first thing I noticed was that I had been laying down on something soft, "Where am I?" I groggily asked anyone in the room as I opened my eyes.

"You feeling alright, son?" Chian asked me once she saw my eyes open, "You're in the basilicom's living room. Noire and Uni are getting your room ready."

"What happened?" I asked my mother as I sat up on the couch that I had been laid down on before feigning ignorance, "All I remember is feeling light headed, and then seeing black before waking up here."

"You passed out, and we brought you here instead of your room; because those two wanted to get your room back in order for you." my mother answered me after she moved from the chair that she had been sitting in to a seat next to me on the couch.

After we had a short moment of silence I decided to ask her how she reacted to my disappearance.

 _Flashback start_

 _Pov (Chian)_

 _Passe- 15 years ago_

 _"What do you mean that my son has disappeared!?" I shouted my question at Lastations CPU._

 _"We had a hard fight with a strange monster. We thought that we had it beat, but with it's dying gasp it tried to strike me but Kaito pushed me out of the way taking the hit for me." Noire told me while she looked a little ashamed, "The monster ended up swatting him into a 'hole' that swallowed him. We tried to find him, but we couldn't locate him at all."_

 _"Get out of here. I can't be around you for a while." I told the CPU while trying to hold back my tears and seem angered._

 _"We'll find him." Noire told me before walking towards the door but stopped before she opened it, "I promise that we'll find him."_

 _Once I was sure that she was gone and I couldn't hold my tears back anymore I broke down into a crying mess; letting my sadness be known to the world._

 _Flashback end_

Pov (Kaito)

"That's pretty much how I was for the next week or so after I was told." my mother told me after her short story with a few tears in her eyes from the sad memories, "Never do that to me again though; I don't think that my heart can take losing my family a third time."

"You're a strong woman; mother." I told her after hearing her feelings, "I'm sorry for making you feel that way, and I'll try not to disappear on you again."

"I had to be." she said as she wiped her tears way, "I'll go tell the Noire and Uni that you're awake."

"I'll wait here then." I said as my mother stood up and walked over to the door.

Once she left the room; I decided to think on what Edric had told me until both Noire and Uni entered the room; with Uni rushing over to me, "How're you feeling?" Noire asked me after entering the room; my mother staying at the door.

"Better than I was when I passed out." I said giving Noire her answer.

"Well that's good then." Noire said after hearing my answer, "I'll call Histoire, Planeptunes Oracle, tomorrow to see if she can figure out what happened to you during the fight yesterday."

"Please do." I said responding to Noire's statement, "I want to know as well."

"I'll make dinner tonight, so you just rest up; papa." Uni told me after Noire and I were done talking.

"I need to get back to the factory, and make sure everything got shut off properly." Chian told us from the doorway, "It's nice talking to all of you again."

The next morning

Lastation Basilicom: Noire's office

"Well Histoire said that she wants to see and examine you." Noire told me from her desk after she ended the call with Planeptues Oracle, "She'd prefer to see you sooner rather than later."

"I did promise that I'd visit the other nations, but I didn't think it would be this soon." I said in response to what Noire had told me as I sat in a chair, "When do we leave?"

"Within the hour. Uni and Kei are going to stay here while the two of us go to Planeptune." Noire said answering my question.

" _If you can; get her to say A-P-L at some point today, or in the near future."_ I heard Edric tell me from wherever he resides at in my head, _"It'll create a bond between the two of you, and accelerate your body's attunement to Share Energy."_

"Would it be a problem if we brought my mother along at all?" I asked Noire after hearing what Edric wanted me to do, "I told her that there's a place there I want her to see."

"What do you want her to see?" Noire asked me a counter question before giving me her answer.

"My father's grave." I said answering Noire's question.

"Call her and see if she's able to go then." Noire said letting out a small sigh, "We'll have to take a train if she does come with."

Planeptune's Basilicom: Living area

4 hours later

just before noon

"How are you feeling after the shock from the other day?" A tiny girl floating on a book asked me, "My name is Histoire, and you're Kaito I presume?"

"I'm feeling fine, and that's right." I said answering the fairy as I sat down on a chair away from everyone, so Histoire and I could speak in a somewhat private environment, "Noire said that you wanted to see me as soon as possible."

"That is true." Histoire said responding to my statement, "I need to examine you; to make sure that there's no adverse effects on your body from that transformation I was informed about."

" _If she examines your psyche at all; then I can explain what we are, and some of the situation to her." Edric told me; having listened in on the conversation_

' _Don't tell her too much though.'_ I thought in response to him, _'We don't need to cause a panic. We can change what's supposed to happen in a more subtle way.'_

"Take your time." I said giving the small fairy a smile as I ended my mental conversation with the other me, "I do need to take my mother somewhere before we leave Planeptune though."

"This should only take three minutes, so you should have plenty of time for that." Histoire said as she floated closer to me on her book, "I just need you to touch my book, and then we can begin."

"Alright then." I told he's as I placed my right hand on the bottom of her book as if I was holding it, "Let me know when you're finished."

To say that the examination felt weird was an understatement. It felt like I was paralyzed for a brief moment before I was forcefully relaxed to the point that I couldn't move a muscle; while at the same time another entity was searching through the entirety of my being, but was overall painless. Throughout the entire process I wasn't able to hear the conversation that Histoire and Edric were having inside my own head.

After three minutes had passed; Histoire floated herself and her book out of my hand and said, "It'll take about three hours before I can completely go through everything I found, but I don't need you until then; so feel free to take your mother wherever you need to while you're in Planeptune."

"Well thank you Histoire." I said as I got out of the chair i had been sitting in and started walking towards the elevator, "Come on mother; I'm done here for now. I want to show you this place as soon as I can."

"I'll be right behind you." my mother said in response to me as she ended her conversation with Nepgear. "Where are you taking me anyway?" She asked me after we had gotten into the elevator and the doors had closed.

"There's only one possible place." I told her as I looked at the floor of the descending elevator, "Father's grave."

"Could you repeat that for me?" my mother requested as the elevator got even closer to the ground floor; thinking she heard me wrong.

"Father's grave." I told her once again.

Virtua Forest: Rex's Grave

1 hour later

"This is where he was buried?" my mother asked me as we entered a small clearing that had a headstone inlaid into a lone sakura tree in the center.

"Falcom always said that he had wanted to be buried in nature. Something about family tradition or something like that." I said in response to my mother's question, "I figured that you would want to see it at least once. I wasn't able to bring you here after we met because of me having to raise Uni, and my disappearance."

"We never did make up after the fight we had." my mother sadly told me as I saw her walk closer to the headstone, "I never got to even say goodbye."

" _You have nothing to be sorry about, and I never got to say goodbye either."_ we heard a voice say from behind the tree, _"I could never stay mad at you; Chian."_

"REX/FATHER?" My mother and I both said at the same time as we immediately recognized the voice.

" _It's good to see the two of you again."_ the now named Rex said as he stepped out from behind the tree to reveal himself as a phantasmal; slightly see-through body, _"I'm only able to be here temporarily; probably only a few minutes or so."_

"How are you here!?" my mother asked even more shocked than I was.

" _That's something even I don't have the answer to."_ my father said answering my mother, _"What I do know is that you've grown into a fine young man; Kaito. Chian if anything; I should be saying I'm sorry about dying before we could make up after that fight, and leaving our son alone."_

"That wasn't your fault father. You did what you had to in order to keep me safe." I said after hearing his apology, "You have something important to tell us don't you?"

" _You have that right."_ He said answering me, _"I learned that there's a great evil that's about to befall this world, but I don't know when; and that you're the only one that can stop it; Kaito. You might need to find our family's sword."_

"What do you mean 'our family's sword' father?" I asked my father's ghost; not seeing the look on my mother's face at the mention of the sword.

" _Our family is an ancient one; son."_ He said giving me somewhat of an answer, _"Our ancestor, Leonhardt, had a sword, granted to him by the Goddess of his time as she did with most of the strongest warriors at the time, that he passed down to his son and so on; until it reached me. I hid it not wanting to bring you into what our family used to do."_

"Rex!" my mother exclaimed, "You can't expect him to find that! You even told me in the last letter you sent me, the one that you told me about your family in, that you never wanted him to find it!"

" _I know what I told you, but he may need it if this evil is as strong as I think it is."_ my father said in response to my mother's outburst.

"What do you mean used to do, and that you never wanted me to find it?" I asked my father after my mother's small outburst.

" _Now I don't have time to give you the full story, so a long story made short is this," h_ e said letting out a reluctant sigh, _"Our ancestor Leonhardt was born in the time of the first Goddess of Gamindustri, and as such things were different back then; very different in fact. He ended up giving his life, so a child could live. He was given a second chance at life to keep that child safe from a great evil by the First Goddess in exchange for making him and his descendants into what she called 'Spirit Vessel's', but never gave any detail on what those were._

" _My grandfather, Thoma, somewhat figured out that the 'contract' was connected to Oathsworn, our family's sword, and my father, Duran; who unfortunately passed away shortly after, confirmed this after he gave me the family sword."_ He paused here to let what he said sink in a bit before continuing as his 'body' slowly started to fade, _"Having learned of this; I decided to try to break the contract by hiding the sword on an island off the coast of Leanbox and, if I could help it, never let you find it."_

"I'll do my best to find it father." I said while I felt a single tear roll down my cheek, "It was good to see you again, and thanks for everything that you did for me."

"I never moved on after you passed away, Rex." my mother told my father as she let a few tears fall, "You were the only man that I could ever be with. There's still so much I want to say to you, but it looks like we won't ever have time."

" _There's a lot I want to tell you as well Chian, but for what it's worth; I only wanted you to be happy, Chian. I never wanted to make you angry or sad."_ my father said, with a couple tears of his own, as his entire lower body and half of his upper body was now gone, _"I love the both of you so much, and I will pray for your safety from the other side. One last thing before I disappear completely Kaito; I'm so proud of you. Not just as my son, but for the kind of man you've become; I peak in on both your lives from time to time just so I can know how you've been doing."_

"Kind of creepy; pops." I said with a chuckle at how my father ended his short speech, "I appreciate the sentiment though."

After my father had completely faded; a bright flash erupted in the clearing behind us; putting me on edge instantly. Quickly turning around to face a possible attacker; I saw a red-haired feminine figure laying on the ground on its side; its back facing us. "Stay behind me; mother." I said sternly as I cautiously walked over to the figure that was on the ground. Once I had gotten to the figure; I knelt down next to it and gently shook its shoulder in an unsuccessful attempt to wake it up, but I succeeded in causing the figure to roll on to its back and reveal a familiar face to me, "FALCOM!?"

' _How did she get here!? Why now!?'_ I thought to myself as I picked Falcom up in a bridal carry, "We need get back quickly!"

Pov (Edric)

Kaito's soul

"What are you trying to do, Drake?" I asked aloud to no one, "Only you could have sent her here since I saw that woman floating in your void of a world."

 **A/N:** **Who enjoyed the twist at the end of the last chapter? What about the short reunion between Kaito's parents? I tried the best that I could with that scene, but I wanted to keep it short. I'm going to mix in a bit of lore from another game into this, but won't be referencing it often enough to put it in the crossover section. There's also going to be a two day time skip between this chapter and chapter 4 so i can do another in-between chapter.**


	10. (Bonus) Trying to be a father

**A/N:** **This in-between chapter is set in the two days between chapters 3 and 4. It's going to be a dream of Kaito's past from when he was raising Uni at various ages.**

Chapter 3.5

Pov (Kaito)

One month after Uni was born

Lastation Basilicom: Living room

Noon

"How are you doing with Uni, Kaito?" Kei asked me while I was looking out the window and holding Uni in my arms; her's wrapped around my neck. My coat hanging up on a rack next to the door.

"Everything's been going great. Uni wanted to look out the window." I told the silver haired tomboy, "It still surprises me on how fast she's been growing." I was referring to the fact that just a month ago Uni had only been a newborn, and now she looked to be about 2 years old.

"It's good to hear that. I was worried that a man as young as you are would buckle under the pressure of being a father." Kei said giving me her opinion, "You along with Noire seem happier now as well."

"Of course we are. We have a little bundle of joy to raise, and I'm enjoying every moment of it. I'm sure Noire is too." I told Kei as I turned to look at her instead of out the window, "I would never abandon anyone in this building; that includes you Kei. Everyone here are people I consider family."

"What family member a I to you then?" Kei asked me out of curiosity.

"To me at least; you seem like the older sister of the family." I said while turning back to the window.

"Papa; I wanna see mama." Uni said in a cute childish voice, "Can we go see her?"

two months after the end of prologue part 3

Lastation Basilicom: Living room

Late Evening

"Papa; I had a scary dream." Uni, who now appeared to be a four year old, said as she came into the room clutching a pillow as I was relaxing on the sofa in my sleepwear, "Can I sleep with you tonight?"

"Of course, Uni." I said softly as I sat up on the sofa, "Let me get the futon out, and then we can get comfortable here." _'I'd rather us sleep in my room, but she looks tired.'_

"What was your dream about?" I asked Uni as I walked over to the closet that was in the living room after getting off of the sofa, "It's alright if you don't want to talk about it."

"I don't wanna talk about it." The four year old Uni told me while I got the futon ready.

"That's alright." I told her as I finished with the futon and walked over to her, "Come here so I can turn off the light."

"Okay, papa." Uni said before she let out a cute yawn and tightly looped her arms around my neck as I picked her up.

After I turned off the light; Uni immediately held onto me even tighter than when I picked her up, "No need to be afraid; papa's here." I told Uni as I walked us over to the futon I had laid out, "How about we go out together tomorrow? Just the two of us."

"You mean it papa?" Uni asked me as I sat down on the futon before she let go of my neck.

"Of course I do." I said as I laid down and pulled the blanket over the both of us, "Now let's go to sleep."

The next day

Park in Lastation

Noon

Pov (Kaito)

"Let's have some fun today, Uni." I told the little girl that I was carrying on my shoulders as we entered the park.

"I wanna go down the slide, papa!" Uni said excitedly while she pointed towards one of the slides in the park, "Come on! Let's go!"

"Whatever you want; my little princess." I said while smiling at how excited Uni was. Her excitement was even getting the attention of other parents and their children.

"He must be a single father." I heard some of the other adults say to each other.

' _If only they knew.'_ I thought to myself as I set Uni down in front of the slide, "Play nice with the other kids Uni. If anything happens don't be afraid to call for me."

"Don't you want to play with me, papa?" Uni asked giving me her puppy eyes.

"Of course I do." I told her in a gentle tone, "I just want to go talk to the other parents here for a minute. I'll build all of the sand castles with you that you want after that; okay?"

"Okay; papa." Uni said changing her expression from puppy eyes to a bright smile.

I watched as Uni climbed the slide as I walked backwards towards the other adults in the park.

"how are you doing today?" one of the other men present asked me after I got to them, "Yours is the black haired one on the slide; right?"

"I'm doing fine today, and she is in a way." I told the man going along with what I had heard the group saying earlier to keep the secret, "She's my older sisters kid. My sister and her husband both passed away shortly after she was born; I was babysitting her when the accident happened. I've done my best at raising her so far; I'm the only family that she has left after all, so I'm doing my best to keep her happy."

"That's so sad." one of the women present told me, "Well if you want my opinion; she looks like she's the happiest girl here right now."

"She's my pride and joy." I told the group as I watched Uni go down the slide for about the fourth time, "She's a little spoiled, but once she gets older she''ll learn to behave like a proper woman. I'll do whatever it takes to keep her safe."

"Overprotective much?" a second man asked me, but I didn't even blink in his direction.

"Not at all." I said giving my answer, "That child is one of the only relatives I have left, and family is irreplaceable."

"Is it hard being a single father?" the same woman from before asked again.

"Was at first." I said giving an answer, "It was a struggle, but a friend I have in the guild gave me some assistance once he heard of my hardships; gave me a paid leave of absence until she's old enough to be left on her own for a while. I wouldn't change any of that pain either; it made me the man I am now, and I'm proud of how I am. Now I need to be going; promised the princess that I'd build castles with her."

"How's my little girl doing?" I asked Uni as I picked her up from behind, "I promised you sand castles, and I'm here to fulfill that promise."

One month later

Lastation Guild: Alexander's office

Pov (Kaito)

10 a.m.

"You can return to guild work now for sure?" Alex asked me after I gave him the news.

"Yeah. Now that little Uni's growing even faster; Kei and Noire are prioritizing her education, so she can potentially take over one day." I said answering his question, "I'd help, but they know I'm not the best teacher so I came to get some physical work done."

"How old would you say she is now?" Alex asked me, "I'll look up a quest for you in the meantime."

"Uni looks to be between five and six now." I said giving him an answer one he pulled up a list of quests, "I'll be the one training her to fight once she's ready though. Noire's happy that she gets to spend more time with Uni now."

"Sounds reasonable." Alex told me, "I'll start you off with an easy quest, and I want no complaints from you. You have a daughter to return to, so I'm not going to let you solo high ranked quests anymore."

"Whatever you say; dad." I told him jokingly after hearing him assert his authority.

Westwind Ravine

3 months later

Pov (Kaito)

noon

"I know you prefer to use guns by now Uni, but I'm still gonna teach you how to use a sword, so you can defend yourself at close range if need be." I told the now 10 year old Uni as we entered the low-leveled dungeon, "It's not gonna be enough to win a fight, but just enough to hold your opponent off until help arrives."

"Okay papa." Uni told me as I handed her a wooden sword.

"I want to see what you can do with that before we begin, so let's go find some dogoos." I said rubbing the top of Uni's head with a smile.

It took us about ten minutes to find a dogoo for Uni to try fighting. "Remember Uni; even though it's the weakest of monsters don't take it lightly. This is your first fight with a sword, so you're in unfamiliar territory here." I told her while giving her a pat on the back, "You're going to be fine; I'm here incase anything happens. Keep your body loose; don't tense up if you can help it. Just try your best."

"Okay papa." Uni said as she approached the dogoo slowly before taking a swing at it and missing.

"Don't get upset about missing Uni." I called out to her as she tried another slash and missing again, "Stay calm. In a real fight your emotions can be used against you by a smart opponent. My teacher used mine against me alot."

The dogoo only sat there bouncing slightly as Uni took a third swing at it and made contact this time; the dogoo, having only been a pup, exploded in pixels at the contact. "I did it papa!" Uni exclaimed happily.

"You did a good job Uni." I said praising her with a smile, "I have a rough idea on a training plan for you now, so look forward to spending a lot of time with papa again."

Uni's bright smile at the thought of spending more time with me brought a smile to my face as I rubbed her head again. After I took my hand off of her head she dropped the wooden sword and jumped into my arms to give me a hug in her excitement, "Thank you papa!" she yelled while hugging me.

"Well someone's happy." I stated as I returned her hug, "Let's get out of here. I'll make your favorite curry for dinner tonight."

"Yay! Thank you papa!" she exclaimed in her excitement while hugging me even tighter.

 **A/N:** **So what do you guys think of this semi-short bonus chapter? I kind of just let my fingers move without paying attention. I read through it and it all seems fine, but I would like some second opinions on this if I could get some. I cut it off where I did because I wanted Kaito teaching Uni to use a sword to be its own bonus chapter, so you can look forward to that.**


	11. Corruption purged

**Chapter 4**

Planeptunes hospital: Falcom's room

Pov (Kaito)

10 a.m. (2 Days after the end of chapter 3)

 _'She's been unconscious for almost two days now. At least Noire was understanding of my reason for wanting to stay.'_ I thought to myself as I sat next to the bed that Falcom was laying in, "You better wake up soon. There's so much that I want and need to talk to you about."

"Ugh." Falcom groaned quietly; causing me to drop my train of thoughts to look over at her.

"How you feeling?" I asked the redhead laying in the bed after I saw that she was waking up.

"Who are you? My vision is to blurry to see right now, and my ears are ringing." She asked me after hearing my question; not recognizing my voice right away.

"It's me; Kaito." I said answering Falcom's question while I stood up from my chair, "You've been missing for a long time; longer than I was. I'll call the doctor in here for you."

20 minutes later

"You appear to be in good health; you should be ready to leave later today." The balding doctor told Falcom after the doctor finished his short series of tests, "I'll have the results from the blood work we ran on you after you were brought here two days ago by then."

"Thank you doctor." Falcom said in response to what the doctor told us after a moment, "It's hard to believe how long its been since I fell in that portal." She told me after the doctor exited the room.

 _"Something doesn't feel right about her."_ Edric told me through our mental link, _"I can faintly sense negative energy inside of her now that she's awake. If she feels up to it; ask her for a spar, so we can draw that out of her and extinguish it."_

 _'I'll do what I can.'_ I thought back to him through the link, "If you feel up to it; do you want to have a spar after you get out of here? That way you can see how far I've come in the time you've been gone."

 _"Warning you now; you might not like the method we have to use."_ He told me before his voice started fading, _"You can also see what'll happen if you fall to Negative Energy as well."_

"That sounds like fun." Falcom said after hearing my simple request, "I'd love to have a spar with you. It's hard to believe that I've been missing for almost 20 years. What changed in your life since that cave exploration?"

"Well it's good to have you back after so long, and a lot has changed since then." I told her before taking a deep breath, "I have a family of sorts now. What I mean by that is that I have someone that I have feelings for, I also have a daughter."

"Well I would love to meet them; especially your daughter." Falcom told me with a small grin, "Now that I think about it; did you ever meet your mother?"

"Yeah, but it took some convincing for her to believe that I was who I said I was." I said answering her question.

Otori Cave

4 hours later

2:20 p.m.

"You sure you're up for this?" I asked Falcom as we stood across from each other with our weapons drawn.

 _"If the Negative Energy inside her rises to the surface, which it will; I'll take over for you. You won't know how to either drive it out of her, or extinguish it yet."_ Edric told me.

"I need you to come at me with everything you've got!" Falcom yelled at me as he discarded her violin case having pulled her sword 'The Dragon Slayer' from it earlier, "I won't be holding back!"

 _"Act like you're going to go all out in the beginning, but don't actually go all out."_ Edric told me as I tensed my body slightly, _"You need her to think you're not taking her seriously."_

"I wouldn't have it any other way!" I yelled back at her before we both dashed at each other to close the distance between us. Once we had reached each other; matching each other blow for blow until we attempted the same over the shoulder slash resulting in our blades locking.

 _"Antagonize her a little; anger should help force the Negative Energy to rise to the surface for her."_ Edric instructed me.

 _'Alright, but you owe me for this.'_ I responded to Edric with a small mental sigh.

 _"I'll tell you exactly what to say."_ Edric told me, _"Now; repeat after me."_

"You're not holding back on me; are you Falcom? Think I can't take you at your full strength? I know you just woke up earlier, but come on; you gave the younger me, and people stronger than yourself better fights than this before." I, tauntingly, told her; repeating the words that Edric was telling me, as I started to push her back, "I could've sworn you were stronger than this?"

"You think so?" Falcom asked me with a tinge of anger in her voice as she tried to push me back.

"Of course; because I would never lose to someone weaker than me!" I yelled as I put even more force into my sword hand and successfully pushed Falcom from our deadlock, "Seriously; this isn't even a challenge."

 _'You're explaining this to her yourself; Edric.'_ I told the other me.

"You aren't even taking this seriously; are you?" She asked me as I saw a wisp of black smoke come from her right shoulder before she charged at me; seemingly starting to lose herself to the Negative Energy inside her.

"Why should I?" I responded to her question with one of my own while sidestepping an overhead slash, "If you're holding back; then I suggest you stop."

"Are you trying to make me angry?" she asked me as she attempted to block the slash I aimed at her waist with even more black smoke coming from various parts of her body, "If so; then you're succeeding!"

 _"Let me take over from here."_ Edric requested, _"The Negative Energy inside of her is about to burst. She only needs one more push."_

Pov (Edric)

"This'll be fun." I said jokingly before letting out a small laugh as I exerted my influence over Kaito's body, temporarily taking over.

"You think this is FUN!?" she shouted at me as she unleashed her Magic Sword Sorcerian on me, but I dodged it with a burst of speed.

"All the time." I said condescendingly as I reappeared behind her with my sword at the back of her neck, "You were never a real challenge to begin with."

"That's it!" she yelled as the black smoke completely enveloped her and started swirling around her; causing me to jump backwards to gain some distance.

 _'This is it!'_ I thought as I surrounded myself in a transparent black aura with red lighting arcing around it, _'Time to see how much this body can take before his actual training starts.'_

"I hope that you can actually challenge me now." I said dismissively as the smoke exploded off of her to reveal herself now with white hair and crimson red eyes with black crack-like lines going from her neck up to her right eye, "Oh; did I make you angry? I couldn't tell."

Instead of answering me; Falcom opted for a more simple choice and decided to charge at me, albeit a lot faster and stronger than before. _'Not bad.'_ I thought as I blocked a slash from her; feeling the force of the blow.

"You're gonna have to try harder that that!" I exclaimed as I pushed her sword away effortlessly and swung mine at her, but she just barely dodged. _'Hope you're watching this, Kaito. It's what could happen to you if you fall to your own negative emotions.'_

After she reoriented herself from her dodge; I confused her by dismissing my sword in favor of my gauntlet. Quickly closing the distance that was between the two of us and gave her a solid punch in her solar plexus, driving the air from her lungs as a result. Once she had regained her breath she attempted to rush at me but was met with an open hand that had a small black fireball in it. "Immolation." I said dismissively as the fireball exploded in a wave of black fire that engulfed her.

Once the fire dissipated; I saw a slightly singed Falcom standing on shaky legs, but still holding her sword strong.

 _"Don't worry. I'm watching."_ I heard him say faintly as I resummoned my sword to redirect her next attack.

"Let's see how well you handle this." I said with a cocky tone as I effortlessly deflected her second attack into the ground and struck her in the stomach with the pommel of my sword, _'I guess training begins now; you can take this as lesson one Kaito. This used to be called the Share Aura before I fell from grace; It roughly doubles your combat abilities, but is capable of doing more than that depending on how you feel about your CPU.'_

"Still not taking me seriously!?" the corrupted Falcom yelled at me in anger as she pulled her sword from where I had sent it into the ground, "You're gonna regret it!"

Deciding to go on the offensive; I quickly forced Falcom on the defensive with three quick slashes; each aimed at different parts of her body; one at her left shoulder, one at her right thigh, and the last one directly at her waist; severely weakening her grip on her sword with each attack she blocked. "I'll admit that you're a good deal stronger than before, but if you want me to take you seriously; you're gonna have to try even harder!" I yelled at her as my black aura spiked slightly.

 _"Don't take this too far Edric."_ I heard Kaito tell me as I pushed Falcom back even further with another slash.

"You're gonna have to try even harder than that, but it seems like this is all you were capable of." I told my opponent as I slashed upwards and knocked her sword out of her hands, "Nice try, but maybe next time." I said as I placed my empty hand on her head.

Once my hand was on her head I pulsed a bit of Kaito's positive energy into her in order to force the Negative energy out of her, but only partially succeeded in my intention as the Negative Energy decided to try to flow into me instead; causing me to remove my hand from Falcom's head after the Negative Energy was completely out of her. _'Not today!'_ I thought as I pushed the Negative Energy, that had flown into Kaito's body, out by pulsing even more positive energy to the arm that had been on Falcom's head.

Seeing the black smoke explode out of Kaito's arm in multiple directions; I let out a sigh as I saw it turn white before disappearing just before it came in contact with any surface. Turning to check on Falcom; I saw that her white hair slowly regain its natural red color, and the black lines fade.

"You feeling better now that the smoke is out of you?" I asked her as I kneeled down infront of her, "Sorry about the things I said to you, but the only way to make that smoke rise to the surface was to make you extremely angry."

 _'There's the apology, Kaito.'_ I told him before letting him take his body back, _'Keep in mind that this was only an extremely small amount of Negative Energy, and it caused that kind of a pseudo transformation. Think about what it could do when a massive amount of it gathers in one place.'_

Pov (Kaito)

"What was that smoke?" Falcom tiredly asked me after hearing Edric's apology.

"Negative Energy." I said giving her as best an answer as I could, "Think of it as a manifestation of the hate, anger, sadness, etc. that humans face on a daily basis; given form.

"I was acting the way I was; because I was trying to draw that out of you, so I could try to extinguish it." I said giving a short explanation of what I had been doing.

 _"You're about to feel the effects of the corrupted Share Aura I used,"_ Edric told me as I was talking to Falcom, _"You're body's not used to the strain of being forced to twice its capabilities yet."_

 _'What are you talking abou-'_ I started to ask Edric before my body started to scream at me in agony.

"Are you alright?" Falcom asked me when she saw me tense up for seemingly no reason.

"Just fine. Used a bit to much energy during that." I said through grit teeth as I tried to keep my voice steady and forced myself to stand up, "Let's get back to Planeptune."

 _"The pain should vanish in about twenty minutes or so."_ Edric told me, _"At least it was that way for me. Your body will adapt to it soon enough."_

Planeptune Basilicom: Histoire's room

6 p.m.

"You drove Negative Energy out of Falcom?!" Histoire asked me once the two of us were alone; floating over the appropriately sized bed.

"Not me necessarily, but yes." I told the tome fairy as I sat on the floor across from her, "It was actually Edric that did that part."

"How exactly did he do that?" Histoire asked me after hearing my answer.

"Well we got her extremely angry to draw the Negative Energy to the surface; then I let Edric take over once Falcom went through a pseudo transformation. Her hair turned white and she had black crack-like lines under her right eye that went down to her neck." I said giving her an answer, "I don't really know how he did it, but it worked. I doubt it would work on a larger amount of Negative Energy though."

"How did she handle the transformation?" Histoire asked me referring to Falcom.

"It didn't cause any permanent physical changes to her; if that's what you're asking." I told her, "Mentally on the other hand; that's another story. I don't have any idea on what happened to her mind during both her brief transformation and long absence. I was planning on bringing her back to Lastation with me tomorrow; just to keep an eye on her for a bit."

"That would probably be for the best." Histoire said letting out a small sigh, "I just want everyone to be safe and happy."

"Same here, Histoire." I said as I stood up, "I'll be cooking tonight, so could you call IF and Compa over? They both wanted to try my cooking before I left Planeptune."

 **A/N:** **How'd I do on the fight scene in this chapter? I tried to differentiate the personalities of Kaito and Edric in the fight as good as I could, but I'm not sure that I did a good job of doing it. Would anyone want to see a chapter about how Edric fell to Negative Energy?**


	12. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Outside the Lastation Basilicom

Noon (Day after the end of the last chapter)

Pov (Kaito)

"You live in the Basilicom with the Goddess of Lastation?!" Falcom asked me with a shocked tone to her voice after we arrived at the Basilicom, "What did you do?"

"I kicked a dragon in the face." I told the redhead with a completely straight face as I opened the door and ushered her in, "Long story that I don't have time to explain fully right now. You should really get a hold of Tekken if you can; I've tried but have had no luck. Uni may introduce herself as my little sister because she doesn't know you, but she's the one I raised as my own daughter."

As I lead Falcom through the Basilicom; I told her a little about how I met Noire until we got to the living room. "Kaito; you're back!" Noire exclaimed from her seat on the couch, with Uni sitting next to her, once I walked into the living room.

"Welcome home; big brother." Uni said with a slightly strained voice at calling me 'big brother'.

"I've already told her that I had a daughter Uni, so stand up and introduce yourself properly." I told Uni with a small smile, "Falcom's like an older sister to me, so she's part of the family too."

"My name's Uni; I'm Kaito's daughter." my daughter said giving a proper introduction to Falcom after standing up.

"So this is the daughter you're so proud of; the one you wouldn't shut up about on our trip here?" Falcom asked me as she gave Uni a once over, "Well nothing seems wrong with her." she said jokingly while giving me a playful jab in the ribs with her elbow.

"I take offence to that." I said after Uni, Falcom, and I sat down, "I raised her as best I could."

"He did a decent job of it as well." Noire said from beside me.

"I was just joking." Falcom told me while grinning, "Never would have thought that you'd make a family with a CPU."

"We've never done anything like THAT." Noire said as her face started turning red, "Uni, instead of being born at her current age, was born as a newborn. Kaito took it upon himself to help me raise her. We kind of became her parents after that."

"What can I say?" I asked everyone in the room, "I felt a connection to Uni from the moment I first picked her up, and I couldn't just leave her and Noire."

"Let's get off that topic for a while." Noire told us, "Kaito what was that phrase Histoire wanted me to say?"

"A-P-L." I said answering her question, "It has to be said by the CPU of the nation I wish to help run."

"Is this about you becoming a being on par with a CPU?" Falcom asked me.

"Essentially." I said answering Falcom, "Since I became a being like a CPU, and wasn't born that way; Histoire, Planeptune's oracle, did some digging in her tome and found some information on someone similar to me in the past.

"That person was a being called an Alpha Player Link or an APL for short." I continued speaking to give an explanation, "That phrase that Noire has to say is so that not only will my full power can be unlocked and so my body can get accustomed to having Share Energy flowing through it, but to bind me to her nations Sharacite; although I believe that the Share Crystal that Noire had forged into my sword is helping with the first part as well."

"Not even going to question that last bit." Falcom said after letting out a small sigh and leaning back in her seat, "You never cease to surprise me."

"I'll be out for about an hour after Noire says the phrase though." I said informing everyone in the room, "Just an after effect of having my 'limiters' removed in a way."

"Well let's get this over with; brace yourself Kaito." Noire told me before taking a breath, "APL."

Upon hearing Noire say those three letters; my entire body froze up the same way it had when Histoire examined me. I stiffened up to the point that my body was starting to hurt from the sudden inability to move. I felt like that for about five minutes before I blacked out from the growing pain.

Dream

Pov (Kaito)

 _'Where am I this time?'_ I thought to myself once I opened my eyes to see a red sky and crumbling buildings.

"I-I-I'm sorry!" I heard a male voice shout in fear from behind me, "I never thought that he would take the bullet for you!"

"Why would you even try to shoot me?" I heard a cold-angry feminine voice say in response to the first, "You took someone close to me and expect me to just let that go?"

Turning around I saw a woman that looked to be going through the same kind of corruption that Falcom had gone through. Her back was facing me, but I could see black 'smoke' coming off of her and her hair was slowly turning a dark blue in color instead of what looked to be a dark red.

 _"What's going on here?"_ I tried to ask but wasn't heard by either person.

"Please! I'm begging you! Spare me!" the man tried asking for mercy while he was backing up until he tripped.

"No can do." the woman said coldly as she brought one arm back and clenched her hand into a fist; a swirling orange and purple energy forming around it, "Should've thought about that before shooting at me."

Lastation Basilicom: Kaito's Room

Pov (Kaito)

One hour Later

"You feeling alright?" Noire asked me from the chair she had brought into my rather plain room after she saw that I had woken up, "You froze up then blacked out; Falcom left shortly after that to get reinstated at the guild and find housing here in Lastation for the time being."

"Light as a feather, and good to know." I told her as I sat up on my bed, "I might have one last lock to undo before I can fully access my other form."

"We can always go on a quest tomorrow to try to get you to transform." She told me, "Just the two of us; like old times. Uni and Kei can handle things here for a couple hours while we're gone."

"I'm sure they could." I said as I looked towards Noire, "It would be good to spend some time together with just the two of us again after so long."

"It's decided then. The two of us are going out tomorrow on our own." Noire told me as she stood up and started to walk towards the door.

Deciding to take a chance I asked her the question that I had wanted to for a long while, "After we finish the quest tomorrow; let's go on a date." I said before she left the room, my face burning, "Nothing fancy; just lunch at a nice restaurant with only you and I. Maybe a walk through a park after that."

"That sounds good." Noire said giving me an answer with a slight tremble in her voice.

"I look forward to it then." I told her as she opened the door.

 _"Didn't think you had the balls for that so soon; took me a lot longer to work up the courage."_ I heard Edric say after Noire closed the door, _"Once you have her though; hold her as close as you can."_

Lastation's Guild

The next day 10 a.m.

Pov (Kaito)

"I'll go get us a quest." Noire told me as we entered the guildhall, which was unusually busy for this time, before she went to an electronic quest board.

"I'll be trying to find Alexander while you pick a quest." I told Noire as I looked around the guildhall and noticed that it hadn't changed in the least, "I want to say hello at least; besides that I still need to get reinstated myself."

"Go ahead." Noire said, glancing back at me from the board, "I'll be looking for a little while; it's so hard to choose sometimes."

"Trust me; I know." I told her as I started walking to where I remembered Alexander's desk being.

"Well look who we have here." I heard a familiar male voice say from behind me. Turning around I saw Alexander standing there, his former black hair now having grey streaks throughout, "You caused me quite a lot of trouble with that disappearing stunt of yours. It's nice to see you again, Kaito, welcome back."

"It's good to be back, and sorry about that Alex." I said apologizing to the man while remembering his name preference, "I did what I had to do."

"I know. That's what you always do, so don't apologize for being yourself." My aged friend told me, "Now let's get to my desk; I take it that you're here to get reinstated?"

"That and to see how you felt after I disappeared."I said as Alexander led me towards his desk, _'Just like old times.'_ I thought to myself.

"I never believed that you were dead by the way." Alex told me as we past a couple people, "You're too stubborn to die anyway. A year after you vanished I felt the need to take up questing again; it was time for the Lastation Phenix to be reborn once again."

"What do you mean by 'again'?" I asked Alexander after we got to his desk.

"All in do time my friend." Was the answer I got from him, "suffice to say, there's more to me than meets the eye."

Unknown Castle Ruins

Pov (Kaito)

11 a.m.

"What was the quest's objectives again?" I asked Noire before we entered the dungeon; my sword drawn.

"To bring down a Hydragon*." Was the answer I got from her.

"You have got to be kidding me." I said in response to her answer after taking a sharp inhale, "How many heads does it have?"

"Last report said it had three heads, but is expected to have grown more." She told me as I let out a sigh of relief, "I chose a hard one on purpose, so trying to force your lock open would be easier."

"Appreciate the thoughts, but this might be a bit to much. A Hydragon typically has a mid to high S-Rank restrictions on them, and that's with a team of four." I said as we entered the dungeon, "While I'm confident in our combined power; this might still be too much for just the two of us."

"Quit whining and get a move on!" she said giving me a playful shove in the back, "You're stronger than you think now, but don't think I've been slouching on my skills in the last 15 years."

As we walked through the ruins; we saw signs of destruction that time couldn't have caused. We saw walls that looked to have been torn down by a large creature, pillars knocked over and shattered, claw marks in the ground, and large patches of soot.

"This thing's really destroying these ruins; isn't it?" I asked Noire as we saw all of the destruction in the area; the open ceiling giving us natural light to see with.

"We could find it at any moment, so be ready," she told me after hearing my question. We eventually came to an open Antechamber where we saw the now seven-headed Hydragon resting, not sleeping, in. "It's now or never Kaito." Noire told me as she transformed in a flash of white light.

"We're going to have a very difficult fight, but I'll be right behind you." I told her as Eryn appeared in my hand. _'You able to help in this at all Edric?'_ I asked the other me mentally.

" _Possibly."_ He said answering me, _"If you come close to being able to transform on your own; then I can force the lock the rest of the way open, but that's probably all I can do."_

' _That should be more than enough.'_ I told him as I steeled my nerves for the fight to come. "Let's do this!" I exclaimed as I charged at the beast of a monster.

Having been drawn to us by the light from Noire's transformation; the Hydragon quickly rose to its feet and readied itself for battle as I charged at it. I saw it launch one of its head at me to try to eat me, but I dodged to the left as I surrounded Eryn in my black flames. "Dark Assault!" I yelled as I tore into its body with my attack after I had gotten close enough to it. It let out a roar of pain, but quickly healed from the damage.

"You never wait do you!" Black Heart yelled at me over the monsters roar as she flew in and blocked another one of the Hydragons heads from eating me from behind, "We could have, and should have, attacked at the same time!"

"I couldn't hold myself back!" I told her after the monster brought its head back from its failed attempt at eating me. Forming a normal fireball in my right hand; I slammed my open palm into the Hydragons torso, "Immolation!" the resulting explosion from my fire attack only escaped from the gaps between my hand and the monsters skin; leaving the creature unharmed.

After my failed attempt to blast a hole in the monster; it only looked at me in minor annoyance before hitting me with one of its clawed paws, and flinging me into, and through, one of the only pillars in the room. Breaking my left arm and causing me to drop my sword in the process.

" _You can do better than this! I know you can!"_ I heard Edric yell at me as I tried to get up, but was stopped by the Hydragon stomping on me; feeling something else crack inside my body caused me to feel an immense pain and let out a pained yell.

"Kaito!" I heard Black Heart yell as I screamed my pain to the heavens. I was barely able to see the monster whip Black Heart with one of its heads; sending her crashing into the ground next to where I was being crushed. I saw a dull flash of light inside of the dust cloud that came from the impact.

"GET OFF OF ME!" I yelled as a sudden feeling of strength filled me as I started pushing up against its paw with my right hand; a rainbow colored mist flowing from my, now healed, back.

" _You're getting close!"_ Edric told me as I struggled to lift the monsters heavy paw off of me with one arm, _"I'll start doing what I can."_

Holding another fireball towards the Hydragon, this one was black flames with a dull rainbow hue in, in my free hand; I gave it a cold look before saying, "Immolation!" The resulting explosion this time was strong enough to knock the monster backwards and cause a rush of wind to blow away the dust cloud.

When I looked back to where Noire had landed; I saw her back in her human form and dazed from the force of the attack, but slowly coming back to her senses. _"I'm done!"_ I heard Edric exclaim as I felt something click inside my body while the rainbow colored mist started swirling around me, _"Now with your raging spirit! Shout out with everything you have!"_

" **ACCESS**!" I yelled loud enough that my voice echoed in the open room. After I yelled access; I was surrounded by a column of white light that reached up into the sky while releasing a torrent of wind before I was revealed to have the same form as when I fought Arfoire with the candidates as the light faded. Looking back at the now standing Hydragon; I glared at it with all of the anger I had, "You have made me very angry." I told the beast calmly as Eryn reappeared in my hand.

" _Now follow my instructions and you'll be able to activate your Share Aura."_ Edric told me as I stared my opponent down, _'I'll lend you some of my power as well; I'll stop the flow from me if I feel it start taking over.'_

Following Edric's instructions; I felt myself getting even stronger as I saw wisps of rainbow colored and a small amount of black flames started dancing off of me before they joined together; forming a veil of rainbow and black flames around my body. The Share Crystal in my sword started glowing as dark flames that had a rainbow colored edge erupted along the edge of the blade. "This one's going to hurt a lot more than the first one did. Dark Assault!" I said before I tore into the creature once again, but this time the wounds didn't heal.

The Hydragon let out another roar of pain after I ended my attack. Not giving it anytime to recover; I immediately rushed in with an Obsidian Break. Each slash, punch, and kick of my attack caused a lot of damage; but right as I finished my attack I formed a rainbow colored orb in one of my hands that was pulsing from the amount of power I was putting into it and condensing.

" _You're figuring things out on your own."_ Edric told me as he watched me turn the tables on the Hydragon, _"I'm impressed. That orb in your hand is an attack called Share Explosion."_

Throwing the orb at the monster; I yelled the name of the attack, "SHARE EXPLOSION!" Once the orb left my hand; it seemingly disappeared before a rainbow colored explosion enveloped the monster it was thrown at.

Turning around I saw that Noire had gotten to her feet; albeit on shaky legs. "Are you okay?" I asked her after I had calmed down slightly.

"What caused you t-" she started to ask me before she was cut off by a loud angry roar.

Turning to face the monster; I saw that it only had one head now. The rest having been severed and burned in the Share Explosion. "You have got to be kidding me." I said aloud as I got myself ready for round two with the now severely weakened Hydragon.

" _Focus your potent energy into your sword after you point it towards the sky."_ Edric instructed me, _"It was one of my strongest attacks after Obsidian Break. I called it my 'Shining Oblivion' before I fell. Now it's my 'Abyssal Darkness'."_

' _Good to know, I'll give it a shot, but I'll put my own spin on it.'_ I said after hearing his advice. Raising my sword towards the sky; I started pushing as much Share Energy into it as I could, its embedded Share Crystal giving off a brilliant glow. "One last clash." I told the growling Hydragon as it readied its breath attack, and my sword started sprouting rainbow colored flames that extended it's length by four feet while the blade itself turned a deep black. Holding Eryn to my side and gripping it with both hands; the flames intensifying as I did so; I looked towards the monster and said, "Time for us to end this. This is my Obsidian Tempest!"

After saying the name of Edrics attack; I charged at the beast just as it started breathing its fire. The pressure alone from my attack cleaved straight through the monsters fire breath with the first swing, as my sword cleaved right through the monster itself with the second; resulting in the Hydragon exploding into pixels. _'Unlike the image you showed me of your version; mine has more of an area effect because of the intense pressure from the force behind my first swing.'_ I mentaly told Edric as I got up from the crouch I had assumed after slicing through the Hydragon.

"Where did you get all of that power from?" Noire asked me after I had walked back to her; with me still being transformed.

"I'll tell you later; princess." I told her as I picked her up in a bridal carry, "Now I do believe you owe me a date, and I plan on collecting."

"Can we go out tomorrow instead?" She asked me, red faced at being held in my arms.

"We're going today. We'll stop by the Basilicom first though." I said giving her a happy grin before my back processors appeared in a flash; taking the form of dragon wings, "Now hold on tight; this is my first flight."

 **A/N:** **A Hydragon is pretty much a hybrid of a classic Hydra and an Ancient Dragon from D pretty much picture a smaller version of Smaug, from the hobbit, but with multiple heads. The next chapter will cover Kaito's and Noire's first actual date. Kurome will also be making her first appearance soon too, so look forward to that.**


	13. Edric's fall

**A/N:** **This is a glimpse into Edric's past about how he 'fell' from grace as an APL. Uni was never born in this world, so after a certain event in this chapter Edric truly had no ties left to the Gamindustri that he's originally from.**

 _ **(Bonus) Edric**_

 _Pov (Edric/Kaito)_

 _Gamindustri Graveyard_

 _"HOW DARE YOU!?" I roared at the person I once considered a friend; feeling my anger reach heights it has never reached before. The cause for my anger was the death of my wife Noire at the hands of my now ex-ally and former friend, Jase, who was currently reeling from the blow I had just given him._

 **Are you angry?**

 _"I didn't mean to! I swear!" He tried to reason with me by using a lie, but I could see through it and wasn't having any of it._

 **Do you hate everything?**

 _"You didn't mean to?" I asked him, malice and anger present in my voice, "Then why did I see you turn towards her when you swung your sword? You have no excuse for this!"_

 **Do you hate everything?**

 _Everyone that was watching, even our foe's the four felons, could see a black and red smoke coming off of me; the fighting between the two sides having stopped. They were all shocked at the sudden betrayal. "I was being controlled by Magic!" He tried to lie to me again, and pin the blame on our enemy at the same time._

 _ **"YES!"**_ _I roared internally at the voice that had been speaking to me as I gave into the Negative Energy that had begun to flow through me. A red plus shaped crystal formed in front of my chest before quickly entering my body._

 _"I have no such ability boy." CFW Magic informed everyone present, shutting down Jase's second lie, "This has nothing to do with me; even though I was trying to kill her myself. I'd do it myself; not use someone else."_

 **Anti-crystal link established.**

 **Beginning Inverse transformation**

 _"You're going to pay for this!" I roared at Jase once again, having finally snapped. The ground started shaking from the amount of power that I was releasing; before the black smoke started swirling around me; more of it pouring out of various parts of my body along with red arcs of lightning appearing around me. "_ _ **ACCESS! INVERSION!**_ _" I yelled once the smoke completely covered me before exploding outward. I was revealed to now be shirtless with clawed elbow length gloves, a sleeveless trench coat, black skin-tight pants, black combat boots with silver laces, two blood red eyes with black sclera along with black crack-like lines underneath them, black hair that had heavy silver and white highlights, and an expression of such anger that would cause even the Deity of Sin would hesitate._

 **It was at this point that I was no longer myself**

 _Now having completely lost myself to my negative emotions; I told Jase in a cocky tone, "You have taken the life of the one I loved most; now it's time to pay for it with your own. Prepare yourself; you'll get no sympathy or mercy from me." After I said my piece I held out my hand and a fully powered Gehaburn appeared in my hands; I had ripped it from Jase's hands, after he struck Noire with it, before delivering a devastating haymaker to his jaw earlier. Taking a step towards Jase; I swung the cursed sword at him with all of the strength I had, and bisected him from his right shoulder to his left hip; the swords beam blade cauterizing the wound and making it more painful as the two parts of his body slid apart and toppled to the ground. "Now you suffer a slow death. It's better than you deserve." I told him as I kicked his torso hard enough to cause him to bleed._

 _Turning to everyone else present, now having been completely consumed by the Negative Energy flowing through me as a black aura with red lightning arcing off of it formed around me, I asked, "Now; who's next?"_

 _"Kaito! What's wrong with you?" Purple Heart yelled her question at me, "He was one of your closest friends; you took him under your wing after he arrived in Gamindustri! How could you do that to him!?"_

 _"What's wrong with me? WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME!?" I said shooting her question back at her; my anger made very clear, "I've only lost the last light I had in this dark world! I was betrayed by one of my closest friends! I have absolutely nothing left for me in this world! The Kaito that all of you once knew is dead; He died alongside with Noire._

 _"Enough of this. I'm ending this now." I said as I raised Gehaburn towards the sky as a flame that was blacker than the abyss erupted from it's hilt, "I'll make this painless for all of you considering our past friendship._ _ **ABYSSAL DARKNESS!**_ _" I yelled as I swung my sword in a horizontal slash that released an arc of lethal black energy that was to fast for the four CPUs, three Candidates, and the Four Felons to dodge. After the arc hit everyone; they started turning to dust as Gehaburn absorbed their powers and souls as streaks of light from where they had been standing._

 _After taking a few moments to let out some of my anger on a nearby cliffside with a couple of my newly named Anti-Explosions; The Deity of Sin herself decided to show herself as a giant bug-like monster. "You picked the wrong time to try and revive." I said with an angry tone as I turned to face the newly revived Deity of Sin; Arfoire._

 _All I got in response was a roar as my new challenger prepared to fight. "Let's do this!" I yelled with a savage grin on my face as my black aura spiked. Launching myself towards Arfoire as red lightning erupted around my sword before being engulfed in a black flame; swinging my sword I yelled, "Lightning Flame!" Before I slashed one of the deity's arms off._

 _Letting out a roar of pain; Arfoire tried to swat me away with her remaining arm. "Need to try harder than that. Your lust for destruction pales in comparison to the pain of loss I just went through." I said as I held up my right hand as a dark-rainbow colored orb formed above my palm before it quickly started growing in size, "If you never existed; than none of this would have happened, so I'm going to destroy you so thoroughly that you will never be able to revive again!" I yelled before I started tensing my right arm as I condensed the now five foot diameter orb down to a tennis ball size._

 _"This is the end of you!" I yelled before I disappeared from Arfoire's sight only to reappear underneath the deity, "BE ERASED! ANTI-EXPLOSION!" I called out the name of my corrupted explosion as I slammed my palm onto the underside of Arfoire's body before detonating the orb in a massive explosion, the resulting shockwave could be felt throughout the surrounding land, that quickly turned Afoire's body to ash. After the explosion ended I swung Gehaburn through the purple mist that had started to swirl around me; causing the mist to be absorbed into Gehaburn, "Now; time to rule Gamindustri with an Iron fist as it's one and only TRUE GOD_!"

Lastation Basilicom: Kaito's room

Midnight

Pov (Kaito)

 _'What was that dream?'_ I asked myself as I jolted awake. _'I'll think more about it in the morning.'_ I told myself as I rolled over onto my side before going back to sleep.

White Void

Pov (Edric)

"Hope you enjoyed that little glimpse of my past; Kaito." I said out loud even though I knew the man I named wouldn't be able to hear me, "I ended it where I did so you wouldn't see what I did to my Gamindustri. You would never trust me again if you saw that."

Location: ?

POV (Third person)

"That was an interesting dream you just had, Kaito." A dark blue haired female said to herself after she opened her eyes to see the destroyed city around her, "I need to be completely sure though. I need to be sure that you can help me."

 **A/N:** **Hope you all enjoyed this bonus chapter. Jase is a reincarnate (** Like with Kazuma from Konosuba **) that chose post-conquest ending Gehaburn as his one weapon not knowing the lore of the weapon, but quickly learned of its true nature.**


End file.
